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Dedicated for a yeshua for Malka bat Sarah Rochel When the Brisker Rav passed away, one of his students started off his eulogy of the Rabbi with a pasuk in Yechezkel. When Hashem told Yechezkel to inform the people about the impending destruction of the Beit HaMikdash , He never told him to say the words “The Beit HaMikdash is going to be destroyed.” Rather, Yechezkel was told to stand in front of the people and let out a bitter sigh and when the people will ask what's wrong, he was to say, “Because I have news that will cause everyone's heart to melt and everyone's hands to become weak,” and the pasuk continued… The student said, “We see from here there were no words that could adequately describe the enormous tragedy of the churban habayit . Any attempt of describing it would have just limited its enormity, so it was better for the people to just watch Yechezkel in pain and they would realize on their own of what was going to happen. Those were the sentiments of the Brisker Rav's student when his Rabbi was taken from him. And in truth, whenever any tragedy occurs, we all have the same sentiments. We can never fully grasp how enormous it really is, how much pain people are in, and all of the effects that come as a result of it. At this time, our hearts and tefilot are with the family members and friends of those who are missing and of those who have passed at the building collapse in Miami. What could we say? On one hand, our hearts are broken, but at the same time, we are full of hope that we should see miracles. People have accepted upon themselves to become better in many areas with the hope of providing zechuyot for yeshuot . People are praying around the clock, saying Tehillim , crying to Hashem for salvation. The consolation that a Jew always has is that Hashem is in full control of every aspect of anything that ever takes place and this instance is no different. Why this is happening, we will not know until the coming of the Mashiach which we hope will be speedily. But we do know that there was no other cause for it other than Hashem. The exact timing, the exact location, who was there, who wasn't there, all of that was determined by Hashem for reasons that only He knows. Hashem is the Shomer Yisrael , He is always watching over us, He is always protecting us. We don't know about the infinite times where tragedy could have easily occurred and Hashem saved us from it. When it occurs it's only for the best, as hard as that is for us to fathom. One day it will be clear, but for now, it's up to us to have that emunah. When David HaMelech was being pursued by his son Avshalom who was trying to kill him, David sang a mizmor to Hashem,מזמור לדוד בברחו מפני אבשלום בנו. And the Gemara asks, why was he singing a mizmor ? Should he have been crying a lamentation? The Gemara answered that David knew something like this was going to happen, but he thought the person who was going to make the uprising would be a bad individual, but then he saw it was his own son and he was consoled. The Yaarot Dvash explained the thought process as follows, if it would have been someone who would be expected to make that uprising, then David might have had an inclination for a moment to think that it was a natural occurrence, but once he saw it was his own son, something so unnatural, it was so clear that it was being orchestrated only by Hashem and that was what gave him consolation and that was why he was singing. Our people have experienced three enormous tragedies in the past two months and each one of them could be explained in the natural way of the world, but seeing the same type of tragedy each time with people being crushed, lo alenu , it is so clear that it is all m'et Hashem. We must improve ourselves. Everyone has areas in which they could improve in. Hashem is calling us, He wants to bring the Mashiach but we have to respond. B'ezrat Hashem, we will hear yeshuot . We hope the people who are missing will be reunited with their families, we will continue to pray and hope and improve ourselves in our avodat Hashem, those are our greatest strengths.

Dedicated for a yeshua for Malka bat Sarah Rochel When the Brisker Rav passed away, one of his students started off his eulogy of the Rabbi with a pasuk in Yechezkel. When Hashem told Yechezkel to inform the people about the impending destruction of the Beit HaMikdash , He never told him to say the words “The Beit HaMikdash is going to be destroyed.” Rather, Yechezkel was told to stand in front of the people and let out a bitter sigh and when the people will ask what's wrong, he was to say, “Because I have news that will cause everyone's heart to melt and everyone's hands to become weak,” and the pasuk continued… The student said, “We see from here there were no words that could adequately describe the enormous tragedy of the churban habayit . Any attempt of describing it would have just limited its enormity, so it was better for the people to just watch Yechezkel in pain and they would realize on their own of what was going to happen. Those were the sentiments of the Brisker Rav's student when his Rabbi was taken from him. And in truth, whenever any tragedy occurs, we all have the same sentiments. We can never fully grasp how enormous it really is, how much pain people are in, and all of the effects that come as a result of it. At this time, our hearts and tefilot are with the family members and friends of those who are missing and of those who have passed at the building collapse in Miami. What could we say? On one hand, our hearts are broken, but at the same time, we are full of hope that we should see miracles. People have accepted upon themselves to become better in many areas with the hope of providing zechuyot for yeshuot . People are praying around the clock, saying Tehillim , crying to Hashem for salvation. The consolation that a Jew always has is that Hashem is in full control of every aspect of anything that ever takes place and this instance is no different. Why this is happening, we will not know until the coming of the Mashiach which we hope will be speedily. But we do know that there was no other cause for it other than Hashem. The exact timing, the exact location, who was there, who wasn't there, all of that was determined by Hashem for reasons that only He knows. Hashem is the Shomer Yisrael , He is always watching over us, He is always protecting us. We don't know about the infinite times where tragedy could have easily occurred and Hashem saved us from it. When it occurs it's only for the best, as hard as that is for us to fathom. One day it will be clear, but for now, it's up to us to have that emunah. When David HaMelech was being pursued by his son Avshalom who was trying to kill him, David sang a mizmor to Hashem,מזמור לדוד בברחו מפני אבשלום בנו. And the Gemara asks, why was he singing a mizmor ? Should he have been crying a lamentation? The Gemara answered that David knew something like this was going to happen, but he thought the person who was going to make the uprising would be a bad individual, but then he saw it was his own son and he was consoled. The Yaarot Dvash explained the thought process as follows, if it would have been someone who would be expected to make that uprising, then David might have had an inclination for a moment to think that it was a natural occurrence, but once he saw it was his own son, something so unnatural, it was so clear that it was being orchestrated only by Hashem and that was what gave him consolation and that was why he was singing. Our people have experienced three enormous tragedies in the past two months and each one of them could be explained in the natural way of the world, but seeing the same type of tragedy each time with people being crushed, lo alenu , it is so clear that it is all m'et Hashem. We must improve ourselves. Everyone has areas in which they could improve in. Hashem is calling us, He wants to bring the Mashiach but we have to respond. B'ezrat Hashem, we will hear yeshuot . We hope the people who are missing will be reunited with their families, we will continue to pray and hope and improve ourselves in our avodat Hashem, those are our greatest strengths.

Parshat Bamidbar is always read on the Shabbat before Shavuot. One reason is because this parasha shows Hashem’s great love for every Jew. Another census was taken here in parashat Bamidbar and Rashi writes, because Hashem loves us so much, He keeps counting us. That is supposed to arouse in us a genuine ahavat Yisrael for our fellow Jew. If Hashem loves my friends and neighbors so much, shouldn’t I love them as well? And that is the prerequisite for Matan Torah . On Shavuot we became the Chosen People of Hashem. He gave us His precious Torah, the greatest gift ever given. The midrash says Hashem wanted to give us the Torah right after we left Mitzrayim , but because we had strife amongst us, we were unworthy of receiving it. When did Hasheme deem us worthy? When we were encamped at Har Sinai כאיש אחד בלב אחד . When Hashem saw inside our hearts that we had a true love for one another and everyone was united as one. Every year, this is the avodah that we are supposed to be working on in anticipation of the holiday of Shavuot. We yearn to be able to understand Torah properly and keep Torah the way that Hashem wants it to be kept. The Torah is not necessarily found with the smartest person, it is a spiritual endeavor and our comprehension of it depends on how pure we are. In Pirkei Avot , there is a list of 48 ways to acquire Torah. Some of them are: loving other people, empathizing with their pain, judging them favorably, not being arrogant, staying away from honor. One might ask, what does possessing these character traits have to do with comprehending Torah? If I love my neighbor and share in his pain, how will that affect my learning abilities? The answer is, the comprehension of Torah is a gift from Hashem and He gives that gift to those who follow in His ways. Hashem loves when we love each other. He loves when we sacrifice of ourselves for others. That is what causes Him to give us more siyata d’Shamaya in our learning. I once heard a story about the time the Tchebiner Rav was awoken on a Shabbat afternoon by somebody banging on his front door. When he opened the door, he saw a 12 year old boy standing there. The boy told the Rabbi that he had missed his Gemara lesson in school the previous day and his rebbe told him he wouldn’t be allowed back into class unless he made up the lesson with a gadol b’Torah . Taking his rebbe’s words literally, this boy went to the home of one of the Gedolei Hador asking him to teach him his Gemara lesson. The Tchebiner Rav was scheduled to give a class that afternoon to a large crowd of people, and he really needed the rest. He could have easily told that boy, “I’m a very busy person, please ask somebody else to do it.” But instead, he looked at the innocent boy who wanted to learn Torah and invited him into his home to learn. He sat with that boy, teaching him for an entire hour. He would later say that he had learned that particular piece of Gemara at least 100 times in his life, but this time was different. He had גילויים נפלאים , Hashem opened his mind to see insights in that Gemara that he was never able to see before. This was a pure Torat chesed and Hashem gave the Rabbi a better acquisition of Torah as a result. May we all merit to receive the gift of Torah from Hashem the way it is meant to be understood, amidst our genuine love for one another. Shabbat Shalom and Chag Same’ach.

Parshat Bamidbar is always read on the Shabbat before Shavuot. One reason is because this parasha shows Hashem’s great love for every Jew. Another census was taken here in parashat Bamidbar and Rashi writes, because Hashem loves us so much, He keeps counting us. That is supposed to arouse in us a genuine ahavat Yisrael for our fellow Jew. If Hashem loves my friends and neighbors so much, shouldn’t I love them as well? And that is the prerequisite for Matan Torah . On Shavuot we became the Chosen People of Hashem. He gave us His precious Torah, the greatest gift ever given. The midrash says Hashem wanted to give us the Torah right after we left Mitzrayim , but because we had strife amongst us, we were unworthy of receiving it. When did Hasheme deem us worthy? When we were encamped at Har Sinai כאיש אחד בלב אחד . When Hashem saw inside our hearts that we had a true love for one another and everyone was united as one. Every year, this is the avodah that we are supposed to be working on in anticipation of the holiday of Shavuot. We yearn to be able to understand Torah properly and keep Torah the way that Hashem wants it to be kept. The Torah is not necessarily found with the smartest person, it is a spiritual endeavor and our comprehension of it depends on how pure we are. In Pirkei Avot , there is a list of 48 ways to acquire Torah. Some of them are: loving other people, empathizing with their pain, judging them favorably, not being arrogant, staying away from honor. One might ask, what does possessing these character traits have to do with comprehending Torah? If I love my neighbor and share in his pain, how will that affect my learning abilities? The answer is, the comprehension of Torah is a gift from Hashem and He gives that gift to those who follow in His ways. Hashem loves when we love each other. He loves when we sacrifice of ourselves for others. That is what causes Him to give us more siyata d’Shamaya in our learning. I once heard a story about the time the Tchebiner Rav was awoken on a Shabbat afternoon by somebody banging on his front door. When he opened the door, he saw a 12 year old boy standing there. The boy told the Rabbi that he had missed his Gemara lesson in school the previous day and his rebbe told him he wouldn’t be allowed back into class unless he made up the lesson with a gadol b’Torah . Taking his rebbe’s words literally, this boy went to the home of one of the Gedolei Hador asking him to teach him his Gemara lesson. The Tchebiner Rav was scheduled to give a class that afternoon to a large crowd of people, and he really needed the rest. He could have easily told that boy, “I’m a very busy person, please ask somebody else to do it.” But instead, he looked at the innocent boy who wanted to learn Torah and invited him into his home to learn. He sat with that boy, teaching him for an entire hour. He would later say that he had learned that particular piece of Gemara at least 100 times in his life, but this time was different. He had גילויים נפלאים , Hashem opened his mind to see insights in that Gemara that he was never able to see before. This was a pure Torat chesed and Hashem gave the Rabbi a better acquisition of Torah as a result. May we all merit to receive the gift of Torah from Hashem the way it is meant to be understood, amidst our genuine love for one another. Shabbat Shalom and Chag Same’ach.

The pasuk at the end of Kohelet says, את האלוקים ירא ואת מצוותיו שמור כי זה כל האדם– having Yirat Shamayim and doing mitzvot is what life is all about. When Hashem puts a test in front of a person and no one will know other than Him, if he passes it, that is a great opportunity of showing Yirat Shamayim . The harder the test is, the greater amount of Yirat Shamayim needed to pass it. When someone overcomes a big test, great things happen. We might not see the effects of those actions right away, but we should always feel so happy knowing that we gave up something to stay loyal to Hashem, and one day we will see great rewards from it. Rabbi Zamir Cohen told a story that he heard from Rabbi Berel Lazar, the Chief Rabbi of Russia. It was about a Jewish student who studied there in university for eight years to receive a certain title that would give him the job he wanted. During that time, this student became religious by attending Rabbi Lazar’s classes. A few weeks before Shavuot, he was told his big test to get the title he’s been waiting for is being given on Shavuot. Now that he was a Shomer Shabbat, he went to his Rabbi and asked for help on what to do. The Chief Rabbi had connections with the Dean of Education, and he called him to ask if the boy could take the test on a different day, due to the holiday. The dean said, “Russia doesn’t change for religion.” The Rabbi was sorry; he couldn’t help. And then he asked the student what he was going to do. The student said, “I’m going to miss the test.” The Rabbi was so impressed. He was willing to give up eight years of hard work and a lifelong dream not to violate a Yom Tov. Rabbi Lazar had a meeting scheduled with President Vladimir Putin the following week, and at that meeting, he couldn’t hold back from mentioning how this student was going to give up eight years of work not to take the test on Yom Tov. Putin was so impressed. He called the Dean of Education and not only did he get this boy to be allowed to take the test on a different day, he got them to change the policy for every Jew in the future – not to ever have to take a test on a Jewish Holiday or Shabbat. The boy’s mesirut nefesh and yirat shamayim gave him the zechut of helping Jews for generations to come, and he didn’t lose out on anything as a result. I heard a different story from a man in Brooklyn who owns a jewelry store in Manhattan with his brother. One Friday night his home phone rang. A message was left saying that the alarm went off in his store, which meant it was being burglarized. He had millions of dollars of merchandise in a vault in the back of the store. Normally he would race there and call the police, but being that it was Shabbat, he ignored the phone call and continued on with his meal as if nothing happened. He went to shul the next morning, he had seudat Shabbat, singing the shireh Shabbat as he always did. After Havdala , he went with his brother down to the store. When they entered, they saw things in disarray. They went to the vault and opened it up and saw that nothing was missing. When the police arrived, they watched the camera to see what had happened. Two armed men broke in and were hiding in the ceiling above the vault. They had guns ready to shoot. They pulled the alarm inside the store, knowing that it would alert the owners so they would come. They were hoping the owners would come in and open the vault to check on their merchandise and, when that happened, who knows what they would have done. They waited there for hours and, when the owners never arrived, they took about $40,000 worth of merchandise on display and left. These men later said, “The zechut of Shabbat saved us. It looked like we were giving up to honor Shabbat, but in reality, it was Shabbat that was protecting us.” Yirat shamayim and shmirat hamitzvot is what life is all about. Every time we overcome a test, knowing Hashem is watching, we are accomplishing what we have been sent here to accomplish.

The Gemara says in Masechet Shabbat the oils and wicks which are forbidden to be used to light the Shabbat candles are able to be used to light the Chanukah candles. The Sfat Emet said in the name of the Chidushei HaRim one of the deeper meanings of that Gemara is that the neshamot of the people who can’t seem to get ignited even from the holy Shabbat will be able to get ignited from the lights of the Chanukah candles. Unfortunately, there are many souls who have drifted away from the proper path, people from good families, people who themselves were once soaring to great heights. Their parents and siblings have been trying everything to get them back, but nothing seems to be working. Our Rabbis are telling us that during these days of Chanukah there is extra Heavenly help to once again reignite those souls and we must take advantage of it. Why is the power of the nerot Chanukah so great? The sefer Mivaser Tov explained, at the time of the Chanukah miracle, the Jewish People risked their lives to fight the Greeks. With just a small number of people, they took on the mighty Greek army. Why were they fighting? Their lives were not at risk. They were fighting to rid themselves of the religious decrees that the Greeks were imposing upon them. This was a fight for Torah and mitzvot. When Hashem saw how much the Jews yearned for pure Torah, that is when He made the miracle and enabled them to defeat the Greeks. As well, He gave them the merit to do the mitzvah of the Menorah in its purest form, not having to rely on the fact that they technically could have lit with impure oil. The flames of the Chanukah candles represent our desire for purity. And every year, Hashem brings back the same energy that was there at the time of the miracle. The energy that is coming from the candles is purity and it is in the air during these days for the taking. Now is when we have to redouble our efforts to pray harder than ever to bring those lost souls back. If we ran out of solutions, if we have no other hishtadlut to make, then we can give the job over to Hashem. He has infinite ways of helping. But we must do our part and pray with all of our might. A Rabbi from Israel who is a very powerful and inspiring speaker told the following story about himself. He said a friend of his asked him to take over in his shul one Shabbat as he had to travel for a family function. The Rabbi, who lived in a different city, agreed to make the trip to help out his friend. Friday afternoon, as he was walking to the shul there, he saw a sign which said on Sunday evening there was going to be a seuda in a certain hall commemorating the shloshim aazkara of someone who had passed away. The Rabbi recognized the name, he knew the family, and he was shocked that he didn’t even hear of this person’s death. He made it his business to go back there that Sunday evening. When he arrived at the hall, he found out that this was not the person he thought it was. It was his cousin with the same name. This man had passed away tragically at the age of 52 and had almost 400 in attendance of the azkara , but no one there was able to give any words of Torah. The crowd consisted of people who were not fully observant. Someone there saw this Rabbi and said, “Wow, it’s so great that you are here. Could you please give a speech to us, give us some words of Torah?” The Rabbi happily agreed. He got up and gave a very powerful 45 minute derasha . The people there were all attentive because they were there to honor the deceased. The Rabbi gave a fiery speech about the purpose of life and everyone there was inspired. He does not know what came about afterwards from his words, but undoubtedly, many of those people changed their lives as a result. Hashem took this Rabbi and placed him in that setting to give chizuk to those 400 lost souls. Hashem could figure out ways to help when we can’t. We need to utilize the extra Siyata d’Shamaya we have on Chanukah and beg Hashem to bring back all of those who have veered from the path.

The days of Chanukah are very auspicious for spiritual growth. People who feel like they are underachieving and want more have a golden opportunity to ask Hashem for help. The miracle of Chanukah took place with candles that were technically not able to light the way they did, but nonetheless, they shined brightly for eight days. Candles represent spirituality. During these days, a person who is technically not capable of achieving, can receive help and shine so bright. Spiritual gifts are not given for nothing, we have to yearn for them. When Yaakov Avinu was on his way to Charan, he passed by Har HaMoriah, but he didn’t realize it and he didn’t stop to pray. Hashem did not stop him. When Yaakov eventually reached his destination, he realized he passed by such a holy site. The moment he turned back to go there and pray, Hashem miraculously folded up the land and brought Har HaMoriah to him. We learn from this that if we don’t actively take steps towards achieving spiritual goals, Hahsem will let us continue in our ways, but if we tell Hashem how much we want it and we take a step towards achieving it, then Hashem will give us an abundance of Siyata d’Shamaya . When Moshe Rabbenu saw the Burning Bush and perceived it was a holy sight, the pasuk says “אסורה נא ואראה – Moshe said to himself, let me turn now from here and go see it.” The Midrash says according to one opinion, Moshe took five steps to get close. According to another opinion, he just turned his face to look. When Hashem saw that he was interested in coming closer, that is when He revealed Himself to him. There is nothing better for us in this world than to be successful in Torah and mitzvot and Yirat Shamayim . Hashem is ready and willing to help us, especially now during these days of Chanukah, but we have to first show interest and take steps to improve. The sefer Ki Ata Imadi told a story that a young Rabbi related to him. Many years ago, the rabbi said, he was learning in a Kollel with the goal of becoming a Posek Halacha . They were learning Orach Chaim and Yoreh De’ah . His first year there, he saw how everyone else in the Kollel was able to learn every Magen Avraham and Taz with great depth, as well as every Pri Megadim and Machatzit Hashekel . But he wasn’t capable of understanding them. He spent his time learning Mishnah Berurah to know the bottom line halacha , but he wasn’t able to learn the sources properly. Every month there was an oral test and when the questions were asked to his friends, they quoted the true sources as their answers. When he was asked questions, he would always say the Mishnah Berurah holds this way. It was embarrassing to him because sometimes he would quote Mishnah Berurah when the true sources were so obvious to everyone else in the Kollel. Things stayed the same way for a few years. He was gradually breaking down and losing his hope of becoming a real Posek Halacha. One night, he cried many tears to Hashem, saying he wants to learn the right way, he wants to know Torah the way it is supposed to be known. As he was crying, he thought to himself he had to do something to show Hashem how badly he really wanted it and how much he was willing to sacrifice to get it. It was the day before they were to receive their monthly stipend. He said to Hashem, “I am going to donate all the money I have available to tzedaka to show You how much I want this.” He had 1600 shekalim on him. He quickly ran to a gabai tzedaka to give him the money before he had a chance to change his mind. After that episode, he said, his learning took on a whole new level. Hashem opened his mind and gave him the ability to understand all of the depth in the words of the Rishonim and Acharonim and, baruch Hashem, this rabbi has already written many sefarim on various topics of halacha . Our strong will goes a very long way. Let us use these days of Chanukah to beg Hashem for help with becoming more spiritual and begin trying to grow to new heights in Torah and mitzvot .

Packed Aliya. The trickery. The signs. The kindness. The barren identical twins. The special firstborn. The names. When Hashem gave a name. The nameless twin sisters. The harsh conversation. The lesson from Sarah. 8 boys are born in this Aliya. 9 girls. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/rabbi-levi-avtzon/support

Although the rewards for mitzvot are given in the Next World, there are numerous side benefits that we receive from them in this world as well. It says in the Zohar HaKadosh in the name of Rabbi Eliezer, “Come and see how kind Hashem deals with us. Even when a person has a harsh decree that he deserves coming to him, Hashem will give that person a present to save him from it, such as a poor person asking for tzedaka . When the person gives tzedaka , a string of charm will be spread upon him which will leave a spiritual marking. When the decree comes to take hold upon him, it will see the mark and run away.” This doesn’t only apply to saving a person from something. It also applies when Hashem wants to give the person a blessing. The way He does it is by giving the person a mitzvah opportunity whose side benefit is a blessing that Hashem wants to bestow upon him. Rashi writes in parashat Ki Tetzeh that the Mitzvah of shiluach hakan is written next to the mitzvah of building a fence around a roof of a new home to teach us that by doing the mitzvah of sending away the mother bird, the person will merit to then build a new home. The question was asked, the mitzvah of shiluach hakan cannot be planned, because the pasuk says, “ כי יקרה קן ציפור לפניך – it has to happen upon him." So what is the chizuk that we are supposed to get from knowing that one leads to the other if we can’t plan on doing it anyway? One explanation is, explains Rabbi Menashe Reizman, that the Torah is teaching us this lesson: When Hashem wants to give a person a new home, one way in which He does it is by putting him in front of a bird’s nest with the opportunity to perform that mitzvah because a side benefit of it is a new home. A person may be in a hurry to get somewhere and then he sees a mitzvah opportunity arise, it might appear that if he avoids the mitzvah, he’ll be gaining time, but who knows if that mitzvah was specifically put there for him, because that is what he needed to be successful in the endeavor that he set out to accomplish. Every mitzvah opportunity that we get is a gift from Hashem for our benefit. The Ohr HaHaim writes in parashat Bashelach , when the Jews were by the edge of the Yam Suf with the Egyptians pursuing them, they had a midat hadin upon them. In order to save them from that midat hadin , Hashem told Moshe if the Jewish People would have bitachon in Him, that would give them the chesed necessary to counteract the din . And that’s what ended up happening. They marched forward confidently, relying on Hashem to save them. And that gave them the chesed they needed. When a person is able to remove worry from his mind and understand that Hashem is in control doing what’s best for him, Hashem considers that an act of chesed for Him, as it says, when the Jewish People followed Him in the desert, not knowing what they were going to eat, “זכרתי לך חסד נעורייך – Hashem said He’ll always remember that kindness that we did for Him.” Our acts of chesed counteract din, and having emunah in Hashem is also considered an act of chesed. It says as well regarding Avraham Avinu, “והאמין בה' ויחשבה לו צדקה.” Rabbi Reizman pointed out, we see from here, when Hashem gives a person something that could be potentially worrisome,(and the person thinks about it day and night, worrying about what the future holds) that may very well be the ticket that he needs for his yeshua. If he can remove the worry, by recognizing he is in the best hands and that Hashem is completely in control, that would endow him with a chut shel chesed and that could be the chesed he needs to remove the din . A thought of emunah is very precious. Each time we remove a worry by thinking about Hashem’s kindness and control and ability, Hashem considers that an act of chesed that we do for Him and it gives us enormous merit.

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One of the ways in which Hashem makes things happen in this world is by placing certain individuals in the exact places He wants them to be at the exact time He wants them to be there. Although they are just ordinary people, at those times they are also acting as Hashem’s messengers. A man I know was actively trying to get married for years but couldn’t find the right match. He is a humble person with a sterling character, and it seemed strange that he was still single. Recently, he was told about a young girl who just began dating, and it seemed like a perfect fit. The only problem was they were nine years apart. When the shadchan called the girl’s family to suggest the shidduch and spoke so highly of the boy, it looked like it was going to get a yes. But then, when he mentioned the boy’s age, the parents of the girl said they were not interested. As hashgacha would have it, at that exact moment when that phone call was made, a friend of the family was in their house, and she overheard what was happening. She excused herself for interjecting and then said, “Please, never turn down a shidduch because of age. I am older than my husband, and we have the best marriage. Age doesn’t matter; what matters is compatibility. If the boy seems great, you should give it a try.” The parents accepted her advice and then agreed to the shidduch. Baruch Hashem, not too long after, this couple got engaged. When Hashem decides the time of marriage has come, it will happen. If one side needs a little push, He’ll have one of His messengers there to do it. A man told me he has been trying to sell to a certain company for months. He knows his product would do great with them. He just couldn’t seem to get a meeting with the owner. All the people he contacted from the company said it would have to go through the owner to be approved. About six weeks ago, this man, who lives in Monsey, had a function in Lakewood that he needed to attend. As hashgacha would have it, when he arrived in Lakewood, he went to a barber shop there to get a haircut. He’s a friendly person in general and, as he customarily does, he made small talk with the man sitting next to him while waiting to get a haircut. His first words were, “Hi, my name is so-and-so. How are you doing?” The other person replied with his name. The man couldn’t believe his ears. That was the name of the owner he had been desperately trying to get in touch with. Right then and there, he discussed his product with him and set up a meeting. Baruch Hashem, since then has sold him hundreds of thousands of dollars of merchandise. When Hashem decides we should make a sale, He has unlimited ways of accomplishing it. Here, He put these two people together in a barber shop at the exact same moment to get it done. Hashem connects people in amazing ways. A man told me, his daughter in Israel was looking for a substitute teacher in her pre-school in Rechavia four months ago. She put out a few advertisements, but no one replied. Just the other day, a friend of hers who has a pre-school in Bayit Vegan asked her if she knew of a substitute, as she was due to give birth. The woman replied she had tried to get one four months before, but it was very difficult, and she never found one. The very next morning, she received a call from a woman saying, “I saw your advertisement for a substitute four months ago. By any chance, is the job still available?” She told her that it wasn’t, but she connected her to her friend. It turned out, this woman lives just two doors away from the pre-school in Bayit Vegan, and she is now working there. Whenever we need to find a person, the best address to go to is Hashem. He can connect us in so many ways.

What happens in a person’s life has already been decided–his lifespan, his children, his livelihood. But lest a person think that things can’t be changed; when Hashem told Avraham that he is going to have a child, Avraham replied, “But I see in the stars that I can’t have children.” Hashem then taught Avraham a lesson that we hold on to very tightly until today. He lifted Avraham above the stars and told him, You are not bound by decrees – אין מזל לישראל – Jews can rise above the mazal . This applies to us receiving blessings and this applies to our performance of mitzvot. The Torah tells us, Avraham was sitting by the door of his tent in the heat of the day. We know he was hoping that people would pass by so that he could do the mitzvah of hachnasat orchim . When Hashem saw how badly Avraham wanted to do that mitzvah, He sent three angels in the form of men. Avraham ran to serve them and did the mitzvah to the best of his ability. The question was asked, those angels were coming anyway, like Chazal teach us – one was to heal Avraham, one was to inform Sarah that she was going to have a child, and one was going to destroy Sedom. So what exactly did Hashem do for Avraham when He saw how much he desired to do the mitzvah? The answer is, Hashem transformed those angels to look like ordinary people and that gave Avraham the ability to earn immeasurable rewards by serving guests in his very weakened state. Which means, what was destined to happen that day was that angels were going to come on a mission and give Avraham information, but when Avraham desired to do the mitzvah of hachnasat orchim so badly, he changed the entire course of history. Chazal tell us, because Avraham served his guests bread, Hashem gave the Jewish People mann in the desert for 40 years. Because Avraham served his guests water that day, Hashem gave the Jewish People the be’er that accompanied them for 40 years in the midbar . And because Avraham stood over his guests, serving them, Hashem gave the Jewish People the Clouds of Glory to stand over them during their 40 years in the desert. What would have happened otherwise, we don’t know. But we do know that Avraham changed the destiny of his children’s lives because of his great desire to do a mitzvah. We have the ability, every day, to turn an ordinary day into an extraordinary day through our deeds and desire to do the ratzon Hashem. Rabbi Yitzchak Weiss was a dayan and he authored the famed work Minchat Yitzchak . He lived in our times, passing away at the age of 87 in 1989. The sefer Va’veh Amudim writes that when Rabbi Weiss was ready to get engaged, his mother discovered that the girl had certain physical blemishes, and she told her son it wasn’t for him. The young Rabbi Weiss said to his mother, “If I end it now it is going to embarrass her, and I don’t want to do that to another person. I’m okay with it. Let’s move forward.” Rabbi Weiss married her and they had one child together named Rav Berish who eventually became the Rosh Hakahal of the Satmar community in Manchester. He recently passed away at the age of 90, yehi zichro baruch . From this one child, Rabbi Weiss had hundreds of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, many of whom are enormous talmidei chachamim . The Rabbi’s wife passed away in the Holocaust at a young age and, although he got remarried, he never had another child. He discovered he wasn’t able to have children, but in the merit that he married his first wife and refused to do something that would embarrass her, Hashem changed his course of destiny and blessed him with a child and generations of children after him. We are never bound by destiny. Our good deeds and tefilot can bring salvations and blessing to ourselves and to our children עד סוף כל הדורות .

There are different levels of emunah in every area of life. When it comes to earning a livelihood, one level is to believe that whatever we’re earning was determined by Hashem. If business is doing well it is because that is the will of Hashem, and if business isn’t doing well, that’s also because it is the will of Hashem. A harder level to reach is when a person has money that is owed to him that is not being paid. There, the person naturally feels the money should be his and the only reason he doesn’t have it is because the other party is holding it back. There, it is much harder to see Hashem. We must internalize, Hashem is the only one in charge of any money that comes or that does not come into our hands. If we are meant to have a certain amount of money, we’ll get it. If it is not from the person who owes us, it will be from a different source. We always get exactly what’s coming to us. If the money is meant to be received directly from the person who owes us, then Hashem will do it that way. There is a certain pleasure in getting money that we are owed. If Hashem determines we should have that pleasure, it will come. It could be months after the debt was due, and it could also be years after the debt was due. When Hashem decides that it will happen, that is when it will happen. A man by the name of Tomer from New York told me this past Erev Rosh Hashanah, he decided he was going to pay a bill that he owed for over six years. A man had done plumbing work for him and, at that time, he told him the cost was $700. Tomer never received a bill for it and so he never paid. The plumber moved to Israel about four years ago. Tomer called him and said he wanted to pay him what he owed, and he asked the plumber for his details so he could transfer the money electronically. The plumber was so appreciative, especially since he needed the money. About an hour later, the plumber called Tomer back to tell him the hashgacha pratit he saw in him paying that debt specifically at that time. The plumber’s wife told him she had an outstanding bill for three years. They had registered their child in a summer hiking program, and he left in the middle. Since he technically did not benefit from the remainder of the program, she rationalized not paying the other half of the money so quickly. This past Erev Rosh Hashanah, she decided she owed it and she had to pay. She tried to make arrangements to pay it but it wasn’t going through. Then she thought, maybe I really don’t owe . She asked Hashem to please help her. If she owed, she wanted to pay. Right after her request, her husband told her, “Tomer from New York just paid us $700 that he owed us from six years ago.” When she heard that, she couldn’t believe her ears. The man she owed money to for the last three years, his name was also Tomer. She immediately made sure to pay in full. If someone is meant to get money, they are going to get the money one way or another. To have the added benefit of getting it from the one who owes us is an extra bonus. A woman told me, her husband had a massive stroke a few weeks ago. She was working three jobs and had to stop all of them due to what happened. All of her jobs are based on performance, and so when she’s not working, she doesn’t get paid. Because of her emunah, she was able to remain calm realizing it is Hashem who provides. And because she was not able to put in a hishtadlut at that time, she was exempt from it. The other day, she received a check in the mail form an old investment that they had made a few years ago that she had totally forgotten about. The check was for $6200. Remembering all of the emunah stories that she is used to hearing, she decided to take out her appointment book to add up what she would have earned from her three jobs for the past two weeks. It came out to $6200 to the penny. Hashem is in charge of our parnasa . We should always feel at ease knowing He is giving us exactly what we are meant to have.

The Torah teaches us, if a person kills someone by accident, he must exile himself to one of the cities of refuge and remain there until the death of the Kohen Gadol, the high priest. During the lifetime of any Kohen Gadol, it's possible there could have been dozens of killers who had to be exiled, but the question was asked, since they were exiled at different times, and they all got out at the same time, they weren’t receiving equal punishments. If one person was exiled when the Kohen Gadol was 50 years old, and another when he was 115, it would turn out that one man had to be in exile for over 65 years, while the other for just a few years. It doesn’t seem fair. Rabbi Menashe Reizman quoted the Ohr HaChaim in Parashat Mishpatim who answered this question based on the comments of Chazal on the Pasuk "והאלוקים אינה לידו" , which tells us that Hashem brought about the accidental murders. When a person killed by accident in front of witnesses, it’s because he had already killed someone else by accident without witnesses and he never suffered his consequences. So when the time came for a person to leave this world, Hashem brought it about through an “accidental” murder by that other individual who needed to now be caught in the presence of witnesses to serve his sentence. Hashem knows how much regret each person had for what he previously did. Hashem knows how much teshuva he made and exactly how much time he deserved to be in exile for that previous act of carelessness. For one person, it could be let’s say 21 years, 4 months, 2 weeks, 6 days and 23 ½ hours; but for another, it could be just a month, 6 days, 12 hours and 4 minutes. And so Hashem ensured that each time there was an accidental killing that took place in front of witnesses, it was at the precise moment it needed to be at, depending on how long that accidental murderer needed to be in exile. The Meshech Chochma adds in Bamidbar 35:25, even the appointment of the Kohen Gadol depended on how long the accidental murderers during his term were going to need to be in exile. Although to the average person it seemed that the Kohen Gadol was appointed by the Sanhedrin according to whom they believed would be the best for the position, in actuality, it was Hashem putting the thoughts into their minds on who to choose, based on how long he was going to live, based on the calculations of how long each murderer needed to be in exile during his term, amongst other infinite calculations. What appears to us as natural causes of events are very misleading. Causes don’t cause events; Hashem determines outcomes, and then, He brings the causes to bring them about. We need to constantly reinforce our emunah that everything that takes place in this world is so carefully determined, based on the way that every single individual needs to be affected by it. Rabbi Reizman pointed out, this plague of Coronavirus affected millions of change in the world at large. Many people died, rachmana litzlan . Many people lost their source of livelihood. Many people married off children with the most basic weddings with barely any people in attendance. We might think that because of Corona, all of these things took place. Heaven forbid to think that way. It’s because Hashem wanted millions of changes in the world to happen and because the time had come for many people to leave the world and for many people to lose their parnasa, He sent this virus in order to bring it all about. People didn’t die because of Corona. The time of death had arrived for them and Hashem used the virus to bring it about. In fact, this year, there were less deaths in Israel than last year. How could that be? Seemingly, all the regular causes of death, including health issues were present, as well as this additional plague. The answer is, it’s not the causes that bring about death, it’s Hashem. Sometimes He does it with many different messengers and sometimes He uses the same messenger again and again. Anyone who got married this year without the big wedding they had always dreamed of, should not think it happened because of the circumstances. When Hashem created the world, He knew when every wedding was going to take place and what kind of wedding each couple should have. Part of that calculation was that the couples who got married this year needed to have small weddings for their benefit. We are always in the hands of Hashem whatever happens to us. If we recognize it and go through it with emunah, we’ll have more peace of mind and we’ll be rewarded for all eternity for thinking the way that we are supposed to.

When Hashem gets angry and Bilaam's accessing that. Why do bad things happen to good people?

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When Hashem gave us the Torah, He told us “והייתם לי סגולה מכל העמים – we are going to be His exclusive nation, His treasure." Shavuot is a great day of celebration. It’s the day we became eternally connected to Hashem. One of the reasons it’s called Shavuot is derived from the word Shevuot , meaning oaths, because of the two oaths that were made – our oath to accept the Torah and Hashem’s oath that we would be His forever and He would never leave us. The sefarim hakedoshim teach us, Shavuot is the greatest holiday of all, it’s called the Keter HaElyon-the highest crown . We should feel so fortunate that we were chosen to be Hashem’s children, we have the closest relationship with the Creator of the world. That knowledge should bring us so much joy. We say in the Amida, Hashem is רופא חולי עמו ישראל , He heals the sick of Israel. We know Hashem is the One who heals everyone in the world, so what is unique about us? Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach explained, when Hashem decrees a sickness upon a person, it has to stay until its prescribed time to leave. But that only applies to the nations of the world. Regarding the Jews, Hashem gave us the power of tefila . We could pray to remove the sickness earlier, and become healed way before the decreed time that the sickness was supposed to leave. That is a gift given exclusively to us, by Hashem, because He loves us so much. Having the Torah gives meaning to every moment of our lives. Mundane chores, which to the rest of the world may be considered dreadful experiences, to us, are uplifting ways of serving our Creator. If someone in the business world worked for three weeks on a deal and then it fell through, he’ll probably be very upset, feeling that he wasted three weeks of his life. But fortunate for us, we don’t have that problem. The Chovot Halevavot writes at the end of the third perek in the Shaar HaBitachon , when we go to work, we should have in mind we’re fulfilling a mitzvah of our Creator to earn a livelihood. And when we go with the right intentions, we are rewarded for those intentions, regardless if our efforts prove to be successful financially. Hashem will send the money when He sees fit. But as for us, work, when done the right way, is an avodat Hashem like any other and that elevates everything about it. Hashem has an intimate relationship with every single Jew. Everything that happens to us on a second to second basis is orchestrated by Him. There’s meaning behind every inconvenience, every moment of joy, they are all out of love for our best. The Gemara teaches us, a person is rewarded for every step he takes walking to shul. That means Hashem is counting every step we take. It says a person’s rewarded for a thought to do a mitzvah. Hashem is monitoring every thought we have. He cares so much about us. The Gemara says, “יותר ממה שהעגל רוצה לינוק, הפרה רוצה להעניק – more than the calf wants to nurse, its mother wants to nurse it." Rav Chaim Cohen explained, the mother has so much milk to give and wants her child to have it, but she’s afraid if she gives it too much in one shot, the baby will choke, so she has to give it slowly. But if she found a way to ensure that it wouldn’t choke, she would just keep giving and giving. The same is true of Hashem. He wants to give us more than we want to receive. But He knows if He gives too much, it may hurt us. But if He sees that a person will be able to receive His blessings and not be affected negatively, He’ll pour it on. We have to make ourselves vessels to receive Hashem’s blessings. Someone who understands that whatever he gets is a gift and that gift will cause him to come closer to Hashem, then he becomes a receptacle fit for blessing. The same applies for spiritual gifts. The more we make ourselves fit for them, the more we’ll get. How do we become fit for spiritual blessings? By humbling ourselves, by recognizing we don’t deserve, by begging Hashem to have mercy on us and help us become people who could serve Him the proper way. Let us celebrate this Yom Tov and feel so blessed that Hashem chose us to be His People. אשר בחר בנו מכל העמים – we are so lucky to be Jews. Let’s learn extra Torah to connect to Hashem even more and, b’ezrat Hashem, we’ll become fit to receive all of His blessings. Chag Sameach!

Many weddings that were scheduled to take place this week are being pushed off due to the circumstances and the parties involved are asking for chizuk on how to deal with it. The first thought they should be having is, it’s Hashem’s doing, everything is going exactly according to plan . To us, it looks like the day of the wedding is being postponed, but in reality, the day has not yet arrived. We are the ones who made the error of thinking we knew the correct date. The way things play out here are the way they were always meant to be. If a person has an ailment and goes to a doctor who prescribes a medication which heals him, the way it looks to us is that the doctor and the medication is what took away his ailment. Yet, the Gemara in Masechet Avodah Zara tells us otherwise: When Hashem gives a person an ailment, first He decides how long it will be there as well as which doctor and which medication will be His messengers to bring about a healing. First comes the decree from Shamayim and then we see the outcome being played out here through the natural way of the world. The Gemara tells us, Hashem decided even before a person is born who he is going to marry. Hashem doesn’t just decide who he’s going to marry, He also decides when the wedding is going to take place, where the wedding is going to take place, how many people are going to attend, what the weather is going to be like that day and so on… Everything is calculated down to the smallest detail. The Brisker Rav was once Mesader Kiddushin at a wedding and the chatan was so nervous, he dropped the ring right before he was going to place it on his bride’s finger. His father picked up the ring, gave it back to him and, once again, he made an attempt. But again, his hand was shaking so much, he dropped it. After his father then picked it up, the nervous chatan made a third attempt and, once again, dropped the ring. This time, people began murmuring. Someone turned to the Brisker Rav and said, “Seems like this is a sign that they shouldn’t be getting married.” The Rav shook his head and said, “This is a sign that the couple was meant to get married now and not three minutes earlier. Immediately after that, the chatan put the ring on his bride’s finger and completed the Kiddushin . Hashem has the time of marriage timed to the second. The best response of a couple that has to wait longer to be married is to acknowledge the fact that it is from Hashem for their absolute best. Chazal tell us, when a couple gets married, the Shechina comes down to dwell in their home. The more they prepare themselves to be worthy of the Shechina’s presence, the greater the presence of the Shechina will be in their home. Now is their opportunity to make themselves more worthy. It is so precious to Hashem when a person manages to uproot sadness or negative feelings with the emunah that He is in control and orchestrating the events for his best. Every little effort purifies the person and brings upon himself, as well as his children and grandchildren, holiness and spirituality. The moment a person has a feeling to want to get upset or angry, but stops himself and thinks about the fact that Hashem is in controls, it’s a moment of glory. The Baal HaTanya said, the Heavenly lights that a Jew merits when he holds himself back from getting angry or having negative thoughts or feelings because of his emunah are so great, they even outshine the light he receives doing a mitzvah like eating matzah of putting on Tefillin . This is the value of reacting with emunah. This is the job of every couple waiting to get married now, or having to have their wedding in a backyard with only a few people attending. It’s the will of Hashem for them. If they accept it with happiness, it will bring about tremendous blessings to their marriage. The same holds true for a chatan Bar Mitzvah who’s not able to celebrate with his friends and family. If he will accept with emunah and joy, he’ll bring so much kedusha into his life. Every moment of a person’s life has been carefully planned out by Hashem. It’s going exactly according to plan. The time a person’s meant to be married is the moment they actually get married, not a second before and not a second later. If we can review these principles of emunah again and again, we’ll be able to gain so much kedusha and elevation form responding properly to these as well as all of life’s challenges.

Too much kindness can sometimes be a bad thing. Too much strictness isn't too pleasant either - just ask schoolchildren of a particular bygone age. When Hashem created the world, He created it with a perfect balance or synthesis, between benevolence and self-discipline. This can be translated into our everyday practice of real kindness - not just the one that allows us to give ourselves a jingoistic slap on the back, but is rather for the benefit of the recipient. Beware the subtle line between serving the self and the other...

Why are we obsessed with time? Be it in terms of cycles of years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and even seconds...the festivals are defined by time. Moed (festival), really means a meeting point. The very first Moed - Pesach, is where we meet our Beloved...skipping over the hills to meet us. Skipping over the houses at midnight to get to our appointment with time. On time. Every second counts. When Hashem decided it was time for us to go, He stopped the clock. Every moment with His people is precious. When He struck the Egyptians, it was at a moment that defied time. This is exemplified by the Matza - one moment too long and it is chametz. What is so important about Hashem acting in this way? Is this another example about how He runs the show? It sure is. Shall we find out? It's about time...

1. It says Hashem formed Adam, and the word formed (vayitzer) is spelled with two yuds bc we all have dual demands of either suffering from temptation or from following God. Alternatively, it is bc the first person, Adam ,was actually a male and female joined back to back. The Gemara notes that this is really a dispute- one opinion says male and female were originally one big figure, and another opinion says that the tail of Adam was taken and formed into a female. Additionally, it was originally God's plan to crate Man and Female as separate entities, but Hashem "switched" to create Female from Male. 2. When Hashem created Female, he "braided her hair" and brought her to Adam. Hashem arranged the wedding for Adam and it teaches us that one shouldn't' feel it is beneath them to organize someone else's wedding. 3. A man should not walk behind a woman. It is wicked to count out money into a woman's hand in order to gaze at her. It is forbidden to walk behind a woman, an idol, or to pass behind a Shul when they are davening (it appears that he doesn't care to pray.) However, if one is carrying something, or if there is another door, or riding a donkey, or wearing Tefillin, then there is no concern. 4. The evil inclination is like a fly that sits between the two gateways of the heart, meaning that it ruins a lot of good. Alternatively, the inclination is like wheat (the good of Man is attracted to evil) 5. Two kidneys= good and bad advise .(good from the right and bad from the left). Kidneys advise, heart considers, tongue speaks, the mouth concludes the speech. Esophagus take in food, the windpipe makes voice, lung draws in liquids, the liver is the root of anger, the gallbladder calms the liver, the spleen laughs, the gizzard grinds food, the stomach makes sleep, the nose wakes one up. 6. The righteous are ruled by their good inclination and the wicked by their evil. People in the middle are ruled by both. Different amoraim considered themselves in the middle. The World to Come is for the righteous and this world is for the wicked. 7. "And you should love Hashem with all you soul"- (this is the source to give up one's life and not to do idolatry.) R' Akiva violated the rules of the Romans and publicly taught Torah. He was caught and died a painful death but was able to say Shema as he was being taken to death and fulfilled this Pasuk. 8. The mishna said one "opposite the eastern opening to the Temple mount" can't act with lightheadedness. This is only from "tzofim" and in and only if one can see into the Temple and when the Temple is standing.

When Hashem tells Avraham to leave his home and embark on a journey, Avraham is told “lech lecha me'artzecha u'mimoladitcha...” (Breishit 12:1). This directive is conspicuously odd. Avraham is told where to leave from, but he is not told his destination. What kind of journey lacks a destination? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/shmuel-reichman/support

It is written in Mesechta Berochos (17/a); When R' Yochanan would conclude the study of the book of Iyov, he said the following: A person will ultimately die and an animal will ultimately be slaughtered, for all are destined for death. Praiseworthy (Ashrei) is he who grew up in Torah, whose labor is in Torah, who gives contentment and joy to his Creator, who grew up with a good name and who leaves the world with a good name. Shlomo (the king) said (Koheles 7/1): “A good name is better than fine oil, and the day of one's death than the day of one’s birth”. Zera Shimshon asks, firstly, exactly what is R' Yochanan referring to when he says Praiseworthy is the man... who gives contentment and joy to his Creator? The phrase, "Who grew up in Torah and whose labor is in Torah is very straightforward; praiseworthy is the man who learns a lot of Torah. However, "who gives contentment and joy to his Creator" is very general and it is not clear what it means. Does it mean that he did a lot of mitzvos in general, he has special intentions when he learns Torah or doing mitzvahs, or does it mean something else? R' Yochanon doesn't specify.Secondly, what does the phrase, "Praiseworthy is one... who grew up with a good name and who leaves the world with a good name" mean. Seemingly having a good name or not is not dependent on the person himself but rather on the way other people look at him. If so, how can we use other people as an indicator of oneself? It is surely possible for a tzaddik not to be liked by bad people and a wicked person can be liked by many people!He answers in light of a passage in Messechta Makkos. In our parsha it is written that a person who killed someone by accident runs to the Eir Miklat (a refugee city) for an atonement and in order that the relatives of the one who was killed will not kill him to avenge their murdered relative's blood. He stays there until the Cohain Gadol or some other special Cohanim pass away and only then can he leave.The Mishna in Makkos (11a) comments that since the freedom of the killer is dependent on the passing away of one of these Cohanim, the mothers of these Cohanim brought food and clothing to the ones confined in the refugee cities so they will be comfortable and not pray that their sons will die. The gemorro infers from this that if they would have prayed for the Kohanim's death Hashem would accept their prayers. The Gemorro asks; how can this be? It is written in Mishlei (26/2); As the wandering sparrow, as the flying swallow, so to a curse that is baseless shall come home”. Meaning a baseless curse is not effective and does no harm. What did these Cohanim do to deserve to die? The gemorro answers that the Cohanim should have pleaded for mercy for their generation (that no one will be killed) but they didn't.According to this, Zera Shimshon explains, R' Yochanon who said; "Praiseworthy is the one.... who gives contentment and joy to his Creator" is referring to a Tzaddik who constantly prays for the welfare of his generation. Chazal teach us (Yevamos 64a) that Hashem yearns for the prayers of tzaddikim and therefore one who constantly prays to Hashem causes Hashem to be content and joyful.The praise that R' Yochanon gives to one "who grew up with a good name" is also referring to the Tzaddik who prayers for the welfare of his generation. It doesn't mean, though, like we originally translated that he grew up WITH a good name and that people liked him but rather it means that he grew up IN THE MIDST of good names. Meaning, that since he prayed for his generation that there will be no calamities and Hashem accepted his prayers, it must be that the people of his generation were righteous. In the merit of learning the Torah of Zera Shimshon Esther Yenta Bas Chana ChassiaandNechama bas Menucha Shainashould find a zivvug hogun speedily.The learning of Zera Shimshon should be L'iylui NishmasR' Aharon Ber ben Chaim Eliyahu (Lipson)Feigga bas Shlomo (Sadler) -------------------------------------------------2-----------------------------------------------וַיִּסְעוּ מֵרַעְמְסֵס בַּחֹדֶשׁ הָרִאשׁוֹן בַּחֲמִשָּׁה עָשָׂר יוֹם לַחֹדֶשׁ הָרִאשׁוֹן מִמָּחֳרַת הַפֶּסַח יָצְאוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּיָד רָמָה לְעֵינֵי כָּל מִצְרָיִם: וּמִצְרַיִם מְקַבְּרִים אֵת אֲשֶׁר הִכָּה יְדֹוָד בָּהֶם כָּל בְּכוֹר וּבֵאלֹהֵיהֶם עָשָׂה יְדֹוָד שְׁפָטִים: (במדבר לג/ג-ד)They journeyed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the day following the Pesach (sacrifice), Bnei Yisroel left triumphantly before the eyes of all the Egyptians. And the Egyptians were busy burying (their dead) because Hashem had struck down their firstborn and had wrought vengeance against their gods. (Bamidbar 33/3-4)Zera Shimshon asks why are these two incidents, that the Egyptians buried their dead and that Hashem destroyed their gods, written together in the same possuk (possuk 4)? Seemingly they are two unrelated events that happened to happen at the same time. He answers in light of Rabeinu Bechiya in Parshas Bo who writes that on the night of makkos bechoros the Mitzryaiim were so involved with all of their dead that they didn't even realize that their gods were also destroyed. Only the next morning, when they went to their places to worship did they grasp what happened to their gods. According to this, reasons Zera Shimshon, we can understand the connection between their burying of the dead and the destruction of their gods. It was at the time that they buried their first borns next to their places of worship did they see what had happened to their gods. (In previous generations cemeteries were situated next to places of worship.) Since only at the time of burial did they actually grasp what happened and felt the loss of their gods the two incidents are written According to this, Zera Shimshon answers a different question. In the first possuk (possuk 3) it says, "on the day following the Pesach (sacrifice), Bnei Yisroel left triumphantly before the eyes of all the Egyptians." The fact that the possuk mentions that Bnei Yisroel went out of Mitzrayim "the day after" and "in front of the Egyptians" indicates that it was not incidental that we left Mitzrayim in the daytime and in front of the Mitzrayiim. Rather Hashem specifically wanted the Mitzrayim to see us leaving. He asks that if this was Hashem's intent then seemingly it would have been better for us to leave in the night, right after makkos bechoros. Firstly, at that time it was "in front of the Mitzrayiim" since at that time they were driving us out of Mitzrayim. Secondly, there was a disadvantage to wait until the morning; after all the bechoros died there was a good chance that Paroah would go back on his promise to let Bnei Yisroel leave, just as he did in the previous makkos. However according to the above, reasons Zera Shimshon, it is very understandable. Hashem that we will see that the pain of the Mitzrayiim when they saw the uselessness of their gods. However, at night they still didn't grasp what really happened. Hashem therefore waited for "the day following the Pesach (sacrifice)" when they felt the pain of their loss to take us out in front of them. Conlcudes, Zera Shimshon, this is also why there was no concern for Paroah to go back on his promise. Since only in the morning did he actually feel the pain of losing his gods, it was as if that was time of the plague.In the merit of learning the Torah of Zera Shimshon Esther Yenta Bas Chana ChassiaandNechama bas Menucha Shainashould find a zivvug hogun speedily.The learning of Zera Shimshon should be L'iylui NishmasR' Aharon Ber ben Chaim Eliyahu (Lipson)Feigga bas Shlomo (Sadler) ---------------------------------------3--------------------------------It is written in this week's Haftorah, "What wrongdoings did your forefathers see in Me that they distanced themselves from Me.."Zera Shimshon asks why did Hashem mention that the reason that the Jewish Nation "distanced themselves" from Hashem (i.e. stopped keeping His mitzvos) was because they thought that Hashem did some wrongdoing? Why didn't He just rebuke them that they distanced themselves from Him?He explains in light of a very interesting ruling of the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh Daya 236/6). The Shulchan Aruch rules that two people who make an agreement between each other, and one of them breaks the agreement then the other one is automatically exempt from his commitment. For instance, a man and a lady swore that they would marry each other by a certain date. When that date arrived one of the parties willfully ignored the agreement and simply didn't show up. Since one of the parties didn't "keep their part of the bargain" then the other party is exempt from the agreement and is allowed to get married to someone else. However, the one who didn't keep the agreement is still bound by the oath and cannot marry someone else.This is only until the other person didn't get married to someone else. After the second party married someone else, since now they didn't "keep their part of the bargain", then the one who broke the agreement is also annulled from the oath. There is a covenant between the Jewish Nation and Hashem. The Jewish Nation swore to keep all of Hashem's mitzvos and not to worship avodah zarah. Correspondingly, Hashem swore to the Jewish Nation that He would never abandon them and that He won't exchange them for another nation. According to this Zera Shimshon explains the above possuk from the Haftorah. When Hashem saw the Jewish Nation leave the Torah way and worship Avodah Zara He asked them "What wrongdoings did you see in Me". Meaning, if I would have abandoned you and not kept My part of the covenant, then I would understand why you worshipped avodah zarah (in accordance to the above ruling of the Shulchan Aruch). If this was the case Hashem would not have rebuked them.However Hashem said that He blessed our forefathers. And even after we didn't fulfill our part of the covenant and we worshipped avodah zarah and you didn't keep Hashem's commandments in Mitzrayim, He continued to keep His promise and He gave us great riches when He took us out of Mitzrayim. Only after Hashem mentioned that He never broke the covenant with us was He able to rebuke the Jewish Nation for their breach of the covenant and distancing themselves from Him!In the merit of learning the Torah of Zera Shimshon Esther Yenta Bas Chana ChassiaandNechama bas Menucha Shainashould find a zivvug hogun speedily.The learning of Zera Shimshon should be L'iylui NishmasR' Aharon Ber ben Chaim Eliyahu (Lipson)Feigga bas Shlomo (Sadler) HaRav Shimshon Nachmani, author of Zera Shimshon lived in Italy about 300 years ago in the time of the Or HaChaim HaKodesh.The Chida writes that he was a great Mekubal and wrote many sefarim including sefarim about “practical kabbolo" and asked that all of his sefarim be buried after he passes away except for Zera Shimshon and Niflaos Shimshon on Avos.HaRav Shimshon Nachmani had one child who died in his lifetime (hence the name "Zera Shimshon") and in the preface he promises for people who learn his sefarim after he dies “... And your eyes will see children and grandchildren like the offshoots of an olive tree around your tables, wise and understanding with houses filled with all manner of good things... and wealth and honor...” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I hope that you’re all doing well today. Welcome to another episode of NachDaily. Today we’re learning Mishlei Perek 21. The perek opens with the words “Palgei mayim lev melech b’yad Hashem al kol asher yachpotz yatenu - The heart of a king is like streams of water in God’s hand. He inclines it in whichever way he desires.” The Gr’a explains that just as water can split into two streams, Hashem uses the king's heart for good and bad. The Malbim relates in a lengthy manner that a king’s free choice differs from that of a regular person. Because the king’s policies affect the masses, Hashem controls his heart to bring about the outcome He desires. Hashem uses the world’s leaders to bring about the changes He wants to see made. He tilts their hearts to the decisions and policies that affect us. This should be encouraging as we look at the never ending news. We know that Hashem is behind the steering wheel, using the world’s leaders as pawns, guiding history towards redemption. Nothing is random. Moving on in the perek, Shlomo Hamelech explains that Hashem desires people to do what is right in His eyes more than he wants sacrifices. Stolen money often gets lost and leads to man's downfall, entrapping him in schemes of corruption. It is better to be by yourself than with a bad wife or friend, as negativity attracts negativity. As the expression goes, misery loves company. When a cynical person gets punished, those around him learn and become wiser because they learn from his mistakes. A wise man loves constructive criticism because he learns from it. A person who ignores the screams of the poor won't be answered when he calls out. A gift has the ability to make someone lose his anger at you. One who loves physical possessions will never be truly wealthy. Better to live in a wasteland, than with a wife who’s constantly arguing with you. Guarding your mouth is like guarding your soul. Verse 30 is a very famous passuk: “Ein chochma v’ein t’vunah v’ein eitzah l’neged Hashem - There is no wisdom, no discernment, and no counsel against God.” Rashi explains that even the wisest person is nothing in comparison to Hashem. The Ralbag adds that even if you plan to do something, God can alter the outcome. When Yosef was sold, his brothers wanted to kill him, but Hashem changed the course of events and Yosef became their ruler. The Ramad Walli explains that we must know that no matter what happens in our lives, it’s from Hashem. If plans didn't work out, or someone harmed you, it’s from Him. Do not be resentful towards God's decrees and the happenings in your life. The Ramad Walli then asks if so, what's the purpose of reflecting on our actions and ways to make sure they are in line with Hashem’s wishes? He answers that even though everything comes from Him, this does not exempt us from working on ourselves and doing our part. We must do our utmost to take stock in ourselves and mend our ways. He explains that Hashem interacts with mankind using the upper 3 Sefiros of Chochma, Bina and Daas. When Hashem wants to send suffering, He uses them to mix up our thoughts, leading to confusion and lack of peace of mind. He takes away our mochin d’gadlus, higher level of consciousness, and replaces it with mochin d’katnus, a lower level where life looks confusing and difficult. This is why the passuk says that there is no wisdom, no discernment, and no counsel against God because He can turn over our minds at anytime that He feels it necessary. I hope you enjoyed today's NachDaily. Thank you for listening, and have a wonderful day!

Part I.Hashem is HereHE’STAMEI, HE’STAMEI, HE’STAMEIכל ימי אשר הנגע בו יטמא, טמא הוא, בדד ישב מחוץ למחנה מושבו – “All the days that thetzara’asis upon the person he shall betamei,tameihe should be. He should dwell alone; outside the camp should be his place of residence.” (13:46) When reading thispossuk, we are immediately struck by the repetition of thetameistatus of themetzora, “He shall betamei,tameihe should be” and that requires an explanation.So we’ll say as follows: The root “tum” denotes something that is “closed off”. That’s what the wordtumahmeans, and that is the principle underlying all the laws oftumah. Wherever we findtumahwe must understand that itis a decree of Hashem to teach us what should be avoided and shunned.So we read thepossukas follows: “All the days that thetzara’asis upon the person he shall be ritually unclean” – the first word “tamei” speaks of the status oftumah. He is anav hatumah. It’s information we have to know. It’s a technicality the Torah is teaching us; the basic law that this man istameiand makestameianything that comes in contact with him. But the second expression oftumah, “Tameihe should be,” is giving us thereasonfor thetumahbeing imposed on him; as if to say: “He shall betamei, because Hashem desires that he should beclosed offfrom society.” “He istamei”, because “tamei, shunned and avoided, he should be.”THE LONELY SEDER NIGHTNow that’s something we have to study. Because we’re talking here about afrumJew. He’s a father, a husband, a loyal servant of Hashem who puts ontefillinanddavensthree times a day with aminyan. His home is a kosher home and his children are allfrumboys and girls. He’s one of us! And yet, one morning he wakes up withtzara’as;and now he must take leave of his family and friends and make his way beyond the walls of the city to live alone. This friend of ours, a fellow Jew, is nowtamei; he’s closed off from the rest of Mankind.Badad yeishev– “He shall stay in isolation,” meaning that even othertamei’imare to avoid his company (Rashi ibid.).So our fellow Jew is now sitting alone outside of the walls of his city; and there he will remain until thetzara’asheals. He’ll miss the Shabbosseudoswith his family. He might even be spending the Seder night all alone! And it’s no accident of fate here. The Rambam says thattzara’asis not a natural form of leprosy; it’sa miraculous phenomenon. “Tzara’asis one of the miracles that Hashem provides to His nation” (Moreh Nevuchim 3:47) and that’s why agoycan’t becometameiwithtzara’as(Negaim 3:1).Hashem miraculously sends upon a Jewtzara’as,and now he has to be shunned. And it’s not because of contagion, or merely because he can bemitameiothers – it’s because Hashem wants him to be “closed off” from people. Hashem wants that he should leave themachaneh;that he should separate from society and dwell alone outside of the city.LOOKS CAN BE DECEIVINGAnd that’s because actually this man is a dangerous man; he may appear to be veryfrum, but thegemara(Eirechin 15b) says: כל המספר לשון הרע נגעים באים עליו. “One who speaks wrong words, he uses his mouth in the wrong way, is stricken by leprosy.” And so we understand that this man misused the gift of company of people; when he was healthy he sat around with his friends and wagged his tongue – not only that he ridiculed and belittled other people, but even just to talkd’varim b’teilimis misusing the tongue.And so in the great days ofnevuah, thenegaoftzara’asspoke to this man the word of Hashem: “He shall betamei, and he should be closed off from people and avoided.” He will dwell alone where he won’t have anyone with whom to speak; and now he will begin the study of how a person is to use his tongue, and he will understand thatthe proper way to use a tongue is primarily by not using it.BRING MANUFACTURING JOBS BACK!The Rambam gives us an insight into this: לעולם ירבה אדם בשתיקה– “A person should always beproducinga great deal of silence” (Rambam Hilchos Dei’os 2:4). You hear that? You have to produce silence as much as you can. Imagine you’re producing goods for a certain purpose. Let’s say you’re making toothbrushes, or you’re a tailor and you’re sewing suits. Whatever it is, you’re producing. So you have to keepcheshbon, “How many goods did I produce today?” “Did I do better today than yesterday?” “What could I do different tomorrow in the factory to produce more toothbrushes?” And it’s the same with silence. A man should always beproducingsilence in this world. You have to think about that! “How much silence did I produce today?”And it’s considered a service of Hashem: לך דומיה תהילה – “To you Hashem, silence is praise” (Tehillim 65:2). That’s an interesting idea, because we always understood that theHallelukahsand thebrachosare praise.Ashrei,HoduandModim, that’s how we praise Hashem. And now we’re being told thatkeeping quietis the real way to praise Hashem; to produce silence is actually a career of praising Hashem. And that needs a good explanation.A LESSON FROM THE WISE MANAnd so, who better to turn to than thechochom m’kol adam.Shlomo Hamelech tells us in Koheles (5:1): אל תבהל על פיך – “Don’t be in a hurry to express yourself, ולבך אל ימהר להוציא דבר לפני השם – Your heart, your mind, shouldn’t be in a hurry to say something in the Presence of Hashem”. When you’re sitting at the table with your family, your friends, Hashem is present. So keep quiet! כי אלוקים בשמים ואתה על הארץ – “Hashem is in the heavens and you’re down below on the earth, על כן יהיו דבריך מעטים – Therefore your words should be few”. Oh, now something else comes into the picture;Elokimis now in the picture!Elokimis inshomayim, above you, looking at you. And you’re down on this earth. על כן יהיו דבריך מעטים – “That’s why your words must be few.”If a man opens up his mouth and words flow out without restraint, so it means he doesn’t feel like he’s inanybody’spresence! Let’s say you were standing in the presence of the mayor, or in front of the president of the United States – he’s not such an important person today – but still you wouldn’t talk too much in his presence. You definitely wouldn’t be shooting off your mouth.DO YOU HAVE EMUNAH IN THE PRESIDENT?Now להבדיל אלף הבדלות, if you are talking with thegadol hador,with let’s say Rav Shach, Rav Moshe Feinstein, whoever is thegadol hador, would you talk much? If you have any sense you wouldn’t say a word! Let’s say you meet the Sigheter Rav, you’re standing in front of the Satmerer Rav, and somebody comes over to you, “Hey, Chaim! What time is it?” Would you say, “It’s three o’clock”?! No you keep quiet, you keep your mouth shut; you’re standing in front of yourrebbeh! Lethimtalk; you keep quiet. חכם אינו מדבר בפני גדול ממנו – “Someone withchochmadoesn’t open his mouth when he’s standing in front of somebody bigger than him” (Avos 5:7).So the fact that you keep your mouth closed indicates that you realize that you’re standing in the Presence of Hashem. It’s a demonstration that you possess a sensory perception of the closeness of Hashem; it’s not merely words, theories. Just like you wouldn’t talk in the presence of somebody important, you don’t open your mouth in the presence ofElokim bashomayim.You keep quiet, at least as quiet as you would be in front of the President. At least that! If the President of the United States was standing here, you’d be careful with every word that comes out of your mouth! That means you believe in the President more than you believe in Hashem!THE PECULIAR MAN OF OURPARSHASo now we can understand why thisfrumman is shunned by Hashem, sent out to live in solitude. If he’s hasty with words, if he doesn’t think before he speaks, so he needs to be sent out where he will have time to think about this great principle ofElokimbashomayim. Themetzorahad to cover his mouth, did you know that? It’s an openpossuk:ועל שפם יעטה, it means that he had to wear his cloak in certain way so that it covered his mouth. What for? Because he was proclaiming to the world this lesson! Part of hiskapparahwas to walk around dressed in this peculiar way; and he had to make a lot of noise too: טמא טמא יקרא, wherever he went he had to proclaim to everyone that he’stamei.So here’s a man with his cloak covering half his face, all the way over his mouth, and in his muffled voice he’s crying out: “I’mtamei, I’mtamei!” It was a strange sight, and anyone who saw him took his condition to heart and learned that he’d better get busy covering up his mouth before thenegacomes tohim. And so we gained a lot by seeing ametzorawith his covered mouth.GAINING EMUNAH; A GUIDEWhat we’re learning is that no matter howfruma person is, he has to havehargasha,emunahchushis, that he’s standing in front of Hashem and that’s why he doesn’t talk. What does that mean? Suppose you’re an ordinary Jew who never worked on these concepts; you don’t actually feel the Presence of Hashem. But you’d like to do it; you aspire to become ama’amin. Now, certainly you won’t admit that you’re not ama’amin, but at least you’ll admit that you don’t feel the Presence of Hashem all the time. And so by training yourself not to talk just for this purpose; each time you wish to open your mouth you remind yourself: כי אלוקים בשמים ואתה על הארץ על כן יהיו דבריך מעטים – “Hashem is listening and therefore your words should be few.” And little by little you bring into yourneshamaan awareness of this tremendous principle, and you thereby achieveyiras Hashem.When someone approaches you and makes a remark, don’t be in a hurry to answer. You’d like to talk; you have a wisecrack or a rejoinder, you want to say something. “No. I won’t say it because I’m standing in front of Hashem.” Sometimes you don’t have to answer at all. If someone says something to you, do you have to say something back? Let’s say a cow says moo, do you have to moo back? A dog barks as you pass by, you have to bark back? So if someone speaks to you, unless it’s necessary, don’t say anything. Just listen. Who says you have to answer?And suppose you must answer; sometimes youmustsay something, so you should count your words. You know, some people are like a faucet; they start pouring out all they have. All the emptiness they have in their minds comes pouring out. That means that they’re beingmasiach da’asfrom Hashem. A person must always keep in mind that Hashem is listening. Keeping your mouth closed, and keeping your words few when you do have to speak shows that you haveemunahthat wherever you are Hashem is listening. If you open your mouth and you talk without restraint so it means you think you’re a free bird. It means that you have noemunah,becausebelief in Hashem requires that we should keep quiet. He’s standing right here after all, and He’s listening.Part II.Your New ProfessionEXTRACTING HONEY AND GEMSNow in order to appreciate more this career ofyiras shamayim, we have to see how thegemarain Chullin (89a)darshensapossuk. As a matter of fact, the followinggemarawas once used by the Alter of Slabodkazichronol’vrachaas an illustration of how to appreciate every word of ama’amar chazal.The Alter thought about every word that thechachomimsaid and he sucked as much honey as he could from thema’amar.Thegemaraquotes the followingpossuk: אמנם אלם צדק תדברון – “The truth is, silence is appropriate; only speak righteous words” (Tehillim 58:2). That’s theposhut pshat,butchazaldiscovered some hidden gems in thatpossuk.First I’ll say the words of thegemaraand then I’ll tell you how the Alter explained them: אמנם – מה אומנתו של אדם בעולם הזה – “What is a man’s profession in this world?” From the word אמנם, comesumnus, profession. And thegemaraasks a question: What’s your job here inOlam Hazeh? And thegemarasays that the next word in thepossuk, אלם, that’s the answer: יעשה עצמו כאלם – “Make yourself as if you were a mute, as if you couldn’t speak.” So we read thepossuklike this: אמנם, what’s yourumnus, your profession? אלם, to be a mute. That’s your business in this world.BARUCH HASHEM FOR ACCOUNTANTS!The first thing we see is that man has aprofessionin this world. A “profession” means it’s not justa hobby to keep silent, it’s not even just a good thing, an added perfection. No; silence isyourbusinessin this world; that’s what we came into this world for. Now at first glance that’s hard to understand; because how could everyone have the same profession? If everyone was a shoemaker so we’d all have comfortable shoes, but we’d have to tailor our own pants. Without good Jewish accountants we’d be paying a lot of extra money to Uncle Sam.So what we’re learning now is that whatever you’re doing in your life; that’s only your second job, a side business; you have to pay the bills after all. But your mainbusinessin this world is to bek’ileim, to keep your mouth closed.Now, the Alterzichrono l’vrachamade the point that anumnusis not something that you just pick yourself up and do; you have to train yourself for a profession. It’s necessary to undergo a course of training to learn the skill of silence, just like you would for any other serious profession. If you want to be a plumber, let’s say, so you’ll just put on a pair of blue overalls, grab a wrench and that’s all?!BECOMING A PLUMBER IS NOT EASYNobody ever became a plumber by saying “I decided I’m a plumber.” You’re going to have to roll up your sleeves and get under a sink. And you’ll have to lie there on your back and watch the master plumber for months and months learning all the tricks of the trade. You’ll have to carry his tools for him and you watch: When do you use this tool? When do you open that valve? When do you close it? It’s achochma, and there’s a lot to learn. And if silence is our career in life, that means we have a lot to study.To become a professional mute, you can’t just buy a padlock for fifty cents at the corner hardware store, lock your mouth firmly, and then walk around the street without worries. It’s not that easy. If that’s all it was, it wouldn’t be a profession; it would just be a fifty cent expense and finished. But no it’s a profession, it’s the “profession of a person in this world.”Now the Alter points out something else in thisgemarathat’s worth our attention: It says “What is the professionsheladamin this world?” The profession of anadam! It’sthisprofession, making yourself into anileim, a mute, that will cause you to earn the title ofadam. Anadamis expected not to open his mouth unless it’s justified. And only the one who has mastered this art can boast that he’s made it, that he’s graduated. Otherwise, you’re not anadam. Maybe you’re a croaking frog, or a blue jay; something you are, absolutely; you’re making noise after all. But you’re not yet anadamunless you’ve mastered this career of silence.GET BUSY BANGING YOUR HEAD!Now, what usually happens when I speak on this subject? I’ll tell you. There’s always one idealist who wants to get busy accomplishing. Why not? Rabbi Miller said so! He said it’s a profession foreveryone. A young man who comes here and he’s inspired by the words of theAlter; he’s ready now to make changes! So he goes home after the lecture, and as soon as he walks into the house he hears his mother talking on the phone. So he bangs on the table, “Uh, uh, uh. Nu, nu!” He wants to make sure his mother knows whathernew profession is!So theAltertells us that we have to know how to learn ama’amar chazal.Thegemarasaysya’aseh atzmo– “Makeyourselfinto a speechless person.” Yourself! Oh, that’s a different story already. What are you banging on the table for? Get busy banging onyour ownhead! Don’t bother others!That means when a man comes home to his wife, and he heard my lecture tonight, and now his wife wants to talk, she wants to tell him about what happened with the children today. And also she’s talking about what her sister said and probably some other things as well. So he should let her talk about whatever she wants. He shouldn’t say, “Keep quiet; in this house we work on producing silence.” He’s a dumbbell! He’s working onhersilence!Ya’aseh atzmo!He has to makehimselfanileim; that’s who he has to worry about.TALK TO PAPA!Now this profession, this career we’re speaking about tonight, wouldn’t be so difficult if all you had to do was to buy a padlock. Mazel tov, you’re anileim! But that’s not what Chazal are demanding of you; it doesn’t say you shouldbeanileim, it saysk’ileim, likea mute. You know that the extra letterkafseems like an unnecessary addition. It could have just as well said, “Make yourself into anileim.” What’sya’aseh atzmo k’ileim, make yourselflikea mute?What it means is that youcan’tpadlock your lips shut! You have to make yourselfk’ileim,likea mute,as ifyou can’t speak. You have to talk, and sometimes you have to talk and talk, but you have to talk like somebody who is anileim. If you have to walk through the street, you have to say good morning or good evening to the people you see. You can’t just walk around with a deadpan face ignoring people. Why should your neighbor suffer because you’re learning a new profession?! You come into the home, so you have to walk in and say, “How was your day Chanaleh?” At least that you have to say! You can’t come in and be anileim. A boy comes in from the yeshiva, he can’t walk in quietly and go to his room. He has to say “Vus machstu mammeh?” “How are you Papa?”Somethinghe has to say! He’sk’ileim, not anileim mamish.That’s why thegemarasays,Yachol la’kol –“You might think that once you adopt this practice so you shouldn’t open your mouth foranything.” תלמוד לומר צדק תדברון – “So thepossuksays, ‘Speak righteousness.’” When it comes to words of righteousnessyou have to talk.”DivreiTorahyou have to talk. Words of kindliness you have to talk. If someone is sad and dejected youmustgo over and put your arm around his shoulders and say a few kind words to him.Tzedek tidabeirun. Good things youmustsay!DON’T COMPLIMENT THE CHALLAH…To say words of encouragement to your fellow man, to comfort a fellow Jew, that’s what you have a mouth for, that’s part of your profession. You don’t have to babble though. Think of ways and means of making people happy, by saying a timely word. If it’s a child then sometimes a littlegletton the cheek and a word or two can be a lifesaver. Tell him something that buoys his self respect, something that gives him the ambition to continue improving.If you tell your wife that she cooks well – that’s very important by the way – that’stzedek. You make sure to compliment your wife when she serves you anything: “Chanaleh, this challah tastes excellent.” Now if she bought it at the bakery, make surenotto praise thechallah; find something else to bem’shabeiach. “This chicken soup ism’ein Olam Habah,Chanaleh. Yi’yasheir koi’ach”Now usually itdoestaste good; you can find many things to compliment. Don’t be bashful! It’s not the time to bek’ileim– now it’s time fortzedek tidabeirun.And even if it happens, an unusual incident, when supper is not such a success, if you’ll say it’s excellent, there’s no harm either. Only that most people have it all wrong; when they have what to complain about, then the words come gushing forth, pearls of “wisdom.” But when it’s time fortzedek tidabeirun,then suddenly this “tzadik” remembers his profession of beingk’ileim.PRACTICE MAKES PERFECTIt’s an art. Sometimes you have to talk and talk, but you have to talk like anileim. You’re always careful not to say what you’re not supposed to say. But what you have to say, you must say. So when you come home tonight and your wife says, “What did he say over there?” Don’t say “Ummmmmm.” Say something. Say it briefly but say something. Don’t just keep your mouth closed.K’ileim,likea mute! Oh, now that’s already anumnus. It’s harder than just lying on your back under a sink studying how to plumb!And therefore we should get busy practicing this profession ofshtikahbecause it means that we’re practicing the career ofyirasshamayim! You’re sitting at the table at the Shabbosseudah, and everyone is prattling away. Talking and talking and talking. So what do you do? You say to yourself, “I’m going to train myself now for my profession in this world. I’m going to sit for two minutes – two minutes on the clock – and listenand not open my mouth.”Let’s say you were forced to go somewhere; sometimes you have to go to visit your in-laws in Boro Park. You can’t say no this time. So they’re eatingmelave malkaand everybody is chatting. Or maybe you’re sitting at achasunaand all around you all the tongues are clacking. While their minds are being ground to pieces by the idle chatter, you can grab the opportunity for getting to work on your profession. So you’re paying attention; you’re trying to seem interested, smiling at the right times. But you’re telling yourself, “Chaim, keep the mouth closed. As much as you can keep quiet becauseElokimisbashomayimlistening.”Part III.The Best MedicineVALUABLE HEALTH ADVICENow, to make a career out of silence because ofElokim Bashomayim, that would be enough. That’s our primary obligation in this world – to prepare forOlam Hababy training ourselves to become more and more aware of Hashem. But it’s more than that; it’s also your happiness and success inOlam Hazeh!There’s amishnahinAvos(1:17) that says the following: שמעון בנו אומר, “Shimon, the son of Rabban Gamliel said, כל ימי גדלתי בין החכמים, all the days of my life I grew up among the wise men, ולא מצאתי לגוף טוב משתיקה, and I found nothing better for the body than silence.” Now, if someone on the street would offer you some health advice, I don’t know how valuable it would be; could be it’s worth something, but you never know for sure. But here you have a man who spent years and years sitting at the feet of the sages. “All my days, I grew up among the sages.” And he heard many important ideas, many important attitudes, and he studied them all. And after many years of investigating he came to the conclusion that of all the things that are good for a person, the best one isshesikah,silence.Now if Shimon bequeathed to us this gem, it pays for us to study his words. He said, “I’ve found nothing better for thebodythan silence.” He didn’t say it’s the best for yourneshama; it’s certainlyisgood for your soul too, but Shimon is telling us here that for yourphysical health, there is nothing as good as keeping your mouth closed. If you’re worried about your health, if you’re a person who wants to live a long healthy life, then the first thing to think about is the remedy of silence. סמא דכולה משתוקא – “The best medicine of all is silence” (Megillah 18a).THE CAUSE OF MOST ILLNESSESYou know that most illnesses, most of the disturbances that take place in our bodies, are caused by emotions that have aroused a raw reaction in our bodies. It’s remarkable what a great effect emotions have on a person’s physical nature. We are full of glands and hormones that stimulate the functions of the body; and if the body is overstimulated by emotions like anger, tension, and nerves, then instead of being beneficial, these hormones are harmful.It’s established already in medical science. All over the body there are results that come from wrong stimulation of the emotions. And how are the emotions stimulated most? Talking! Someone says something and you answer back, then you talk and argue, and that’s when the trouble begins. The metabolism is upset and very many people become ill as a result. A world of illnesses are caused by talking. Very many cases of cancer are due to friction in human relationships.YOUR MIGHTY MOUTHA man told me, “Do you know why I’m blind?” A blind man told me this. Because he was so aggravated – these are his words – he was so aggravated because of troubles in the family that he acquired diabetes and became blind. Blindness many times comes from aggravation, from excitation. When people go to an eye specialist one of the first questions they’ll ask you is, “Do you get angry or excited?” Dovid Hamelech said (Tehillim 6:8) עששה מכעס עיני – “My eye became worn out because ofka’as, עתקה מכל צוררי, it grew old because of those who aggravated me.” So if you talk to people and get into arguments, it’s bad for your eyesight. And if it’s bad for your eyes that means that it’s wreaking havoc in your body; it’s bad for everything.Heart failure too! You open your mouth when you could have kept it closed and the heart becomes subjected to too much stress; the valves cannot take it and there’s a breakdown somewhere, a weakness in a valve someplace. Just by talking too much, there’s quarreling, there’s tension, nervous excitement, and your heart is suffering from it. I’m not saying that it happens all of a sudden, but gradually your big mouth is weakening your heart, and then one day,chalilah, it breaks down.WHERE DO PEOPLE DIE?I know of a man who dropped dead in the middle of an argument with his wife. He was a fine man, by the way, a good man. But if he would have studied thismishnainPirkei Avos,he would have known “Don’t answer back!” And that would have saved him; he’d probably still be alive today. Who told you to answer back?! If you can be a diplomat and say something nice, do it. But if not, don’t say anything. He was afrumyoung man – he probably even knew thismishna– but he never studied it, and so he acted according to his nature and he answered back. He said his piece, and she answered back, and it went back and forth, back and forth until he dropped dead.It happens again and again. Don’t you read sometimes in the paper – a certain man, so and so, died of heart failure. Where did his heart attack happen? Did he die in his business because of his competitors? No, people don’t die because of their competitors. Did he die on the street because someone in the street insulted him? People don’t usually die because someone insulted them. He dies at home! People die because of their wives! Of course the newspaper will never say that. The obituary published in the newspapers will never say, “Mr. Anderson dropped dead Sunday night after an argument with his wife!” No, no, it won’t say that! It says, “Mr. Anderson died peacefully in his sleep at his home this past Sunday.” But if you know how to read the obituary pages, so you already know what that means.COMMUNICATION ISSUES?Why didn’t he die at his business? Why at his home? The answer is at home he has a wife, and most people die as a result of words. I’m not saying he’s right – who told him to react?! Who told him to bump his head against a stone wall? Arguing with a wife? Do you know what it’s like? It’s like he’s sticking a needle into her, a real needle. And she’s sticking needles into him. Is that fun? All of their lives they are “needling” each other. Only that his heart, his constitution was a bit weaker than his wife’s. You can’t win an argument! You think you’ll win an argument with your wife?! You’ll never win! The only real way to win an argument is to avoid it. So don’t get excited over nothing. Keep quiet and that’s all. Just keep quiet! And both of you will live longer as a result. And you’ll live happier lives as well.Women call me up; they say, “We have communication issues. My husband doesn’t ‘communicate’ with me.” The trouble isthere’s too much communication! If they wouldn’t communicate so much they’d be much better off; in most cases people will profit by not talking.IGNORE THE BUMIn Mesichta Sanhedrin (7a) it says: טוביה דשמע ואדיש – “Happy is the man who hears people saying things that insult him, that bother him, and he ignores it, חלפוה בישתיה מאה – A hundred evils will pass him by.” Memorize those words; say them to yourself again and again. Learn to ignore any words you don’t like; somebody said something sharp to you, so שמע, you heard it, but אדיש, it doesn’t bother you. Pay no attention; make believe you never even heard it, and you’ll be spared from many troubles. If your husband is mean to you, pay no attention. If your wife is mean to you, pay no attention. And one hundred evils will pass you by. You’ll live together happily for the rest of your life.Most of the time, a punch in the nose is a result of opening up a mouth instead of ignoring. Suppose you’re walking in the street and a bum says something insulting to you. Forget about it! Don’t feel that you have to stand up and defend your honor. Oh no! Don’t do that. I know a man who did that and he got beaten up. Don’t even look at him; it’s dangerous. As far as you’re concerned you didn’t hear it, you didn’t hear anything. Keep walking and in another minute, you’re out of danger.And thank Hashem that you’re able to keep on walking. If it’s a goy who insults you, so you can give him abrachathat he should drop dead. Don’t let him hear you though! Don’t even mutter; don’t say it with your mouth. The mouth always stays closed!CHINESE WISDOM FOR LIFEI was walking in the street once, and twoshkutzim, two young men came over to me and blocked the sidewalk; they didn’t let me go further. I couldn’t walk; I was stuck. So I got out off the sidewalk and I kept going. I didn’t say anything, I didn’t even take a peek over my shoulder. Suppose I looked back and said, “What do you think you’re doing? What right do you have to do that?” Ohhh, what would have happened to me! Don’t be achacham, a hero. I always quote to you the wise Chinese proverb. The Chinamen say “The greatest hero is the one who runs away.” If you ignore and run away you’re a hero. And the one who opens up his mouth is not a hero, he’s a loser.I always say this story; it’s a tragic story. A young man from YU was going onchamisha asar b’shvatoutingto Madison Square Garden. He was with a group of younger boys, achaburahof boys with yarmulkes on, and he was leading them. And two twenty year oldshkutzimwere ridiculing the boys’yarmulkas. Now this young man, he didn’t take the advice ofchazal. At least the Chinese he should have listened to!Instead he looked at the gentile boys with anger and said something. Now agoy bleibt a goy,so theshkutzimwent back to their car, they took out a hammer from the trunk, and they attacked him. They hit him over the head with the hammer and they killed him. He died there on the street,nebach. That’s why it says, “There’s nothing betterfor the bodythan keeping quiet.”HOW TO DEAL WITH HATELet’s say somebody calls you on the telephone and insults you. It happened to me a number of times. People have called the house and cursed me. You know what I did? I didn’t say a word! Not a word! And they hung up. It happened again a few months ago and I knew who it was; I knew. And after that he came into myshulone evening todavenand I didn’t say a word. And it was finished. But once you start up with these people, who knows what’s going to be? A word for a word and it turns into who knows what! There’s no knowing how it’s going to end up! So just grin and bear it.How many people have lost their jobs by talking back to their boss? Sometimes their boss is in a bad mood, so just swallow down what he said and it could be that an hour later he’ll be a good boss. He might even promote you. I had that experience once. In my first position inrabbanus, a man once came into a meeting of the board of directors and he made a grand announcement: He said, “Rabbi Miller, I greeted you last week and you didn’t answer me! You didn’t answer me ‘Good Shabbos.’” He brought it up to the board of directors at a meeting; a complaint against the new rabbi. So the president of the shul came over and asked me about it. Now, it wasn’t true, but I didn’t say anything. I could have opened my mouth, but I remembered thisma’amar chazaland I kept my mouth closed.RABBI MILLER GETS A RAISE!I met this man again and again, he was a shul member, and I was always friendly to him. One day he gets up by the meeting of the board of directors and he makes a motion to give me a raise.Thisman! No one thought of giving me a raise except this one man! Now, had I answered him back it would have never happened. And so I learned the lesson that it “pays” to keep your mouth closed.I’ve seen it all! I’ve watched as people put themselves in danger by opening a mouth. Just because they answered back, I’ve watched good people lose jobs, lose customers. They lost their wives or their husbands, siblings and friends. And sooner or later they lose themselves; they excite wrong reactions in their bodies and they end up sick. Many lose years from their life because of their mouths.THE KEY TO A GOOD LIFEAnd that’s what Dovid Hamelech tells us (Tehillim 34:13-14): מי האיש החפץ חיים – “Who is the man who wants life?” We think it means eternal life, and that’s true; but it’s not the whole truth. There’s more to it: Who wants to livein this world? אוהב ימים – “You’re anoheiv yomim?” You like days, don’t you? You want more and more of them. לראות טוב – “You want to see happiness and good times during those days?” You want to see yourself getting along well with others? You want a successful marriage? You want to see good health? That’s all included inlir’os tov.“Oh,” you say. “That’s me! I want to live long! I want to see good times!”But you don’t! You’re not really interested in trying to live long. You’ll say it, you’ll repeat it, you’ll even sing it, but you don’t think about it. You have to take steps to live long, and one of the most important steps is tokeep the mouth closed. נצור לשונך מרע – “Guard your tongue against evil”. What does “evil” mean? Not only you shouldn’t say derogatory things about people or quarrel with them. The reallashon harais opening your mouth to say stupid things, to chatter and babble and say nothing. The general rule is to keep your tongue on the inside of the mouth and keep the mouth closed; that’s the rule you should follow. If we live according to that, our physical happiness in this world will increase and we will attain a life oflir’os tov,of seeing good times.A MOMENT OF SILENCESo we go back to the great principle that the job of a person in this world is to learn the skill of being quiet, the profession of being like anileim. And before we conclude we’ll listen to the words of a great man, the Vilna Gaon (Igeres Hagra); these words deserve to be remembered by us. שעל כל רגע ורגע – “For every moment, for every minute, שאדם חוסם פיו – that a man muzzles his mouth, זוכה לאור הגנוז – He’ll be rewarded by that secret brilliance, שאין כל מלאך יכול לשער – that no creature, no angel, is capable of measuring its magnitude.”The splendor of reward is so great for one minute of silence! We’re not talking about a whole lifetime of silence; he says there that for everymomentthat you keep your mouth closed, you’ll be rewarded with a splendor, a brilliance that is so great that even an angel is not capable of measuring the magnitude, the extent of its greatness. I know that this is a very extreme statement but the Vina Gaon is a very responsible personality. So it’s not only a profession ofyiras shamayim, and not only is it the best advice for good health and long life, but it’s a career that will reward you beyond your highest dreams.LEARNING THE LESSONAnd so we have to get busy. How can you read about themetzoraevery year, and continue to ignore the lessons for your own life? Even if today we aren’t privileged to see the miraculous hand of Hashem bringingtzara’ason a person, but the lessons remain as applicable today as they were then. When Hashem separated a good man, a loyal frum Jew, from his family and friends, he was expected to learn this lesson of “Elokimisba’shomayimlistening to you … therefore your words should be few.” And we, no less than him, are expected to learn that lesson as well.And so we have to delve into thesepesukimand apply them to our own lives. This man had to cover his mouth; what about me? Am I anadamyet? Am I producing enough silence? Am I succeeding at my profession of making myselfk’ileim? And so when we study thisparsha, we can’t just let it pass by. As often as you can during the day, a minute here and a minute there, you remind yourself that it’s your job to be as silent as you can. Not complete silence –tzedektidabeirun! But as far as everything else we will try to be as careful as possible and remember that לך דומיה תהילה, to You Hashem silence is praise, and thereby we gain the great reward of Hashem, a reward unknown even to the angels. 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Part I. Hashem is HereHE’S TAMEI, HE’S TAMEI, HE’S TAMEIכל ימי אשר הנגע בו יטמא, טמא הוא, בדד ישב מחוץ למחנה מושבו – “All the days that the tzara’as is upon the person he shall be tamei, tamei he should be. He should dwell alone; outside the camp should be his place of residence.” (13:46) When reading this possuk, we are immediately struck by the repetition of the tamei status of the metzora, “He shall be tamei,tamei he should be” and that requires an explanation.So we’ll say as follows: The root “tum” denotes something that is “closed off”. That’s what the word tumah means, and that is the principle underlying all the laws of tumah. Wherever we find tumah we must understand that itis a decree of Hashem to teach us what should be avoided and shunned.So we read the possuk as follows: “All the days that the tzara’as is upon the person he shall be ritually unclean” – the first word “tamei” speaks of the status of tumah. He is an av hatumah. It’s information we have to know. It’s a technicality the Torah is teaching us; the basic law that this man is tameiand makes tamei anything that comes in contact with him. But the second expression of tumah, “Tamei he should be,” is giving us the reason for the tumahbeing imposed on him; as if to say: “He shall be tamei, because Hashem desires that he should be closed off from society.” “He is tamei”, because “tamei, shunned and avoided, he should be.”THE LONELY SEDER NIGHTNow that’s something we have to study. Because we’re talking here about a frum Jew. He’s a father, a husband, a loyal servant of Hashem who puts on tefillin and davens three times a day with a minyan. His home is a kosher home and his children are all frum boys and girls. He’s one of us! And yet, one morning he wakes up with tzara’as;and now he must take leave of his family and friends and make his way beyond the walls of the city to live alone. This friend of ours, a fellow Jew, is now tamei; he’s closed off from the rest of Mankind. Badad yeishev – “He shall stay in isolation,” meaning that even other tamei’im are to avoid his company (Rashi ibid.).So our fellow Jew is now sitting alone outside of the walls of his city; and there he will remain until the tzara’as heals. He’ll miss the Shabbos seudos with his family. He might even be spending the Seder night all alone! And it’s no accident of fate here. The Rambam says that tzara’as is not a natural form of leprosy; it’sa miraculous phenomenon. “Tzara’as is one of the miracles that Hashem provides to His nation” (Moreh Nevuchim 3:47) and that’s why a goy can’t become tamei with tzara’as (Negaim 3:1).Hashem miraculously sends upon a Jew tzara’as, and now he has to be shunned. And it’s not because of contagion, or merely because he can be mitameiothers – it’s because Hashem wants him to be “closed off” from people. Hashem wants that he should leave the machaneh; that he should separate from society and dwell alone outside of the city.LOOKS CAN BE DECEIVINGAnd that’s because actually this man is a dangerous man; he may appear to be very frum, but the gemara (Eirechin 15b) says: כל המספר לשון הרע נגעים באים עליו. “One who speaks wrong words, he uses his mouth in the wrong way, is stricken by leprosy.” And so we understand that this man misused the gift of company of people; when he was healthy he sat around with his friends and wagged his tongue – not only that he ridiculed and belittled other people, but even just to talk d’varim b’teilim is misusing the tongue.And so in the great days of nevuah, the nega of tzara’asspoke to this man the word of Hashem: “He shall be tamei, and he should be closed off from people and avoided.” He will dwell alone where he won’t have anyone with whom to speak; and now he will begin the study of how a person is to use his tongue, and he will understand that the proper way to use a tongue is primarily by not using it.BRING MANUFACTURING JOBS BACK!The Rambam gives us an insight into this: לעולם ירבה אדם בשתיקה– “A person should always be producing a great deal of silence” (Rambam Hilchos Dei’os 2:4). You hear that? You have to produce silence as much as you can. Imagine you’re producing goods for a certain purpose. Let’s say you’re making toothbrushes, or you’re a tailor and you’re sewing suits. Whatever it is, you’re producing. So you have to keep cheshbon, “How many goods did I produce today?” “Did I do better today than yesterday?” “What could I do different tomorrow in the factory to produce more toothbrushes?” And it’s the same with silence. A man should always be producing silence in this world. You have to think about that! “How much silence did I produce today?”And it’s considered a service of Hashem: לך דומיה תהילה – “To you Hashem, silence is praise” (Tehillim 65:2). That’s an interesting idea, because we always understood that the Hallelukahs and the brachos are praise. Ashrei, Hodu and Modim, that’s how we praise Hashem. And now we’re being told that keeping quiet is the real way to praise Hashem; to produce silence is actually a career of praising Hashem. And that needs a good explanation.A LESSON FROM THE WISE MANAnd so, who better to turn to than the chochom m’kol adam. Shlomo Hamelech tells us in Koheles (5:1): אל תבהל על פיך – “Don’t be in a hurry to express yourself, ולבך אל ימהר להוציא דבר לפני השם – Your heart, your mind, shouldn’t be in a hurry to say something in the Presence of Hashem”. When you’re sitting at the table with your family, your friends, Hashem is present. So keep quiet! כי אלוקים בשמים ואתה על הארץ – “Hashem is in the heavens and you’re down below on the earth, על כן יהיו דבריך מעטים – Therefore your words should be few”. Oh, now something else comes into the picture; Elokim is now in the picture! Elokim is in shomayim, above you, looking at you. And you’re down on this earth. על כן יהיו דבריך מעטים – “That’s why your words must be few.”If a man opens up his mouth and words flow out without restraint, so it means he doesn’t feel like he’s in anybody’s presence! Let’s say you were standing in the presence of the mayor, or in front of the president of the United States – he’s not such an important person today – but still you wouldn’t talk too much in his presence. You definitely wouldn’t be shooting off your mouth.DO YOU HAVE EMUNAH IN THE PRESIDENT?Now להבדיל אלף הבדלות, if you are talking with the gadol hador,with let’s say Rav Shach, Rav Moshe Feinstein, whoever is the gadol hador, would you talk much? If you have any sense you wouldn’t say a word! Let’s say you meet the Sigheter Rav, you’re standing in front of the Satmerer Rav, and somebody comes over to you, “Hey, Chaim! What time is it?” Would you say, “It’s three o’clock”?! No you keep quiet, you keep your mouth shut; you’re standing in front of your rebbeh! Let him talk; you keep quiet. חכם אינו מדבר בפני גדול ממנו – “Someone with chochmadoesn’t open his mouth when he’s standing in front of somebody bigger than him” (Avos 5:7).So the fact that you keep your mouth closed indicates that you realize that you’re standing in the Presence of Hashem. It’s a demonstration that you possess a sensory perception of the closeness of Hashem; it’s not merely words, theories. Just like you wouldn’t talk in the presence of somebody important, you don’t open your mouth in the presence of Elokim bashomayim. You keep quiet, at least as quiet as you would be in front of the President. At least that! If the President of the United States was standing here, you’d be careful with every word that comes out of your mouth! That means you believe in the President more than you believe in Hashem!THE PECULIAR MAN OF OUR PARSHASo now we can understand why this frum man is shunned by Hashem, sent out to live in solitude. If he’s hasty with words, if he doesn’t think before he speaks, so he needs to be sent out where he will have time to think about this great principle of Elokim bashomayim. The metzora had to cover his mouth, did you know that? It’s an open possuk: ועל שפם יעטה, it means that he had to wear his cloak in certain way so that it covered his mouth. What for? Because he was proclaiming to the world this lesson! Part of his kapparah was to walk around dressed in this peculiar way; and he had to make a lot of noise too: טמא טמא יקרא, wherever he went he had to proclaim to everyone that he’s tamei.So here’s a man with his cloak covering half his face, all the way over his mouth, and in his muffled voice he’s crying out: “I’m tamei, I’m tamei!” It was a strange sight, and anyone who saw him took his condition to heart and learned that he’d better get busy covering up his mouth before the nega comes to him. And so we gained a lot by seeing a metzora with his covered mouth.GAINING EMUNAH; A GUIDEWhat we’re learning is that no matter how frum a person is, he has to have hargasha, emunahchushis, that he’s standing in front of Hashem and that’s why he doesn’t talk. What does that mean? Suppose you’re an ordinary Jew who never worked on these concepts; you don’t actually feel the Presence of Hashem. But you’d like to do it; you aspire to become a ma’amin. Now, certainly you won’t admit that you’re not a ma’amin, but at least you’ll admit that you don’t feel the Presence of Hashem all the time. And so by training yourself not to talk just for this purpose; each time you wish to open your mouth you remind yourself: כי אלוקים בשמים ואתה על הארץ על כן יהיו דבריך מעטים – “Hashem is listening and therefore your words should be few.” And little by little you bring into your neshama an awareness of this tremendous principle, and you thereby achieve yiras Hashem.When someone approaches you and makes a remark, don’t be in a hurry to answer. You’d like to talk; you have a wisecrack or a rejoinder, you want to say something. “No. I won’t say it because I’m standing in front of Hashem.” Sometimes you don’t have to answer at all. If someone says something to you, do you have to say something back? Let’s say a cow says moo, do you have to moo back? A dog barks as you pass by, you have to bark back? So if someone speaks to you, unless it’s necessary, don’t say anything. Just listen. Who says you have to answer?And suppose you must answer; sometimes you must say something, so you should count your words. You know, some people are like a faucet; they start pouring out all they have. All the emptiness they have in their minds comes pouring out. That means that they’re being masiach da’as from Hashem. A person must always keep in mind that Hashem is listening. Keeping your mouth closed, and keeping your words few when you do have to speak shows that you have emunah that wherever you are Hashem is listening. If you open your mouth and you talk without restraint so it means you think you’re a free bird. It means that you have no emunah,becausebelief in Hashem requires that we should keep quiet. He’s standing right here after all, and He’s listening.Part II. Your New ProfessionEXTRACTING HONEY AND GEMSNow in order to appreciate more this career of yiras shamayim, we have to see how the gemarain Chullin (89a) darshens a possuk. As a matter of fact, the following gemara was once used by the Alter of Slabodka zichronol’vracha as an illustration of how to appreciate every word of a ma’amar chazal. The Alter thought about every word that the chachomim said and he sucked as much honey as he could from the ma’amar. The gemara quotes the following possuk: אמנם אלם צדק תדברון – “The truth is, silence is appropriate; only speak righteous words” (Tehillim 58:2). That’s the poshut pshat, but chazal discovered some hidden gems in that possuk.First I’ll say the words of the gemara and then I’ll tell you how the Alter explained them: אמנם – מה אומנתו של אדם בעולם הזה – “What is a man’s profession in this world?” From the word אמנם, comes umnus, profession. And the gemara asks a question: What’s your job here in Olam Hazeh? And the gemara says that the next word in the possuk, אלם, that’s the answer: יעשה עצמו כאלם – “Make yourself as if you were a mute, as if you couldn’t speak.” So we read the possuklike this: אמנם, what’s your umnus, your profession? אלם, to be a mute. That’s your business in this world.BARUCH HASHEM FOR ACCOUNTANTS!The first thing we see is that man has a profession in this world. A “profession” means it’s not justa hobby to keep silent, it’s not even just a good thing, an added perfection. No; silence is yourbusiness in this world; that’s what we came into this world for. Now at first glance that’s hard to understand; because how could everyone have the same profession? If everyone was a shoemaker so we’d all have comfortable shoes, but we’d have to tailor our own pants. Without good Jewish accountants we’d be paying a lot of extra money to Uncle Sam. So what we’re learning now is that whatever you’re doing in your life; that’s only your second job, a side business; you have to pay the bills after all. But your main business in this world is to be k’ileim, to keep your mouth closed.Now, the Alter zichrono l’vrachamade the point that an umnus is not something that you just pick yourself up and do; you have to train yourself for a profession. It’s necessary to undergo a course of training to learn the skill of silence, just like you would for any other serious profession. If you want to be a plumber, let’s say, so you’ll just put on a pair of blue overalls, grab a wrench and that’s all?!BECOMING A PLUMBER IS NOT EASYNobody ever became a plumber by saying “I decided I’m a plumber.” You’re going to have to roll up your sleeves and get under a sink. And you’ll have to lie there on your back and watch the master plumber for months and months learning all the tricks of the trade. You’ll have to carry his tools for him and you watch: When do you use this tool? When do you open that valve? When do you close it? It’s achochma, and there’s a lot to learn. And if silence is our career in life, that means we have a lot to study.To become a professional mute, you can’t just buy a padlock for fifty cents at the corner hardware store, lock your mouth firmly, and then walk around the street without worries. It’s not that easy. If that’s all it was, it wouldn’t be a profession; it would just be a fifty cent expense and finished. But no it’s a profession, it’s the “profession of a person in this world.”Now the Alter points out something else in this gemarathat’s worth our attention: It says “What is the profession sheladam in this world?” The profession of an adam! It’s thisprofession, making yourself into an ileim, a mute, that will cause you to earn the title of adam. An adam is expected not to open his mouth unless it’s justified. And only the one who has mastered this art can boast that he’s made it, that he’s graduated. Otherwise, you’re not an adam. Maybe you’re a croaking frog, or a blue jay; something you are, absolutely; you’re making noise after all. But you’re not yet an adam unless you’ve mastered this career of silence.GET BUSY BANGING YOUR HEAD!Now, what usually happens when I speak on this subject? I’ll tell you. There’s always one idealist who wants to get busy accomplishing. Why not? Rabbi Miller said so! He said it’s a profession for everyone. A young man who comes here and he’s inspired by the words of the Alter; he’s ready now to make changes! So he goes home after the lecture, and as soon as he walks into the house he hears his mother talking on the phone. So he bangs on the table, “Uh, uh, uh. Nu, nu!” He wants to make sure his mother knows what her new profession is!So the Alter tells us that we have to know how to learn a ma’amar chazal. The gemara saysya’aseh atzmo – “Make yourselfinto a speechless person.” Yourself! Oh, that’s a different story already. What are you banging on the table for? Get busy banging on your own head! Don’t bother others!That means when a man comes home to his wife, and he heard my lecture tonight, and now his wife wants to talk, she wants to tell him about what happened with the children today. And also she’s talking about what her sister said and probably some other things as well. So he should let her talk about whatever she wants. He shouldn’t say, “Keep quiet; in this house we work on producing silence.” He’s a dumbbell! He’s working on her silence! Ya’aseh atzmo! He has to make himselfan ileim; that’s who he has to worry about. TALK TO PAPA!Now this profession, this career we’re speaking about tonight, wouldn’t be so difficult if all you had to do was to buy a padlock. Mazel tov, you’re an ileim! But that’s not what Chazal are demanding of you; it doesn’t say you should be an ileim, it says k’ileim, like a mute. You know that the extra letter kaf seems like an unnecessary addition. It could have just as well said, “Make yourself into an ileim.” What’s ya’aseh atzmo k’ileim, make yourself like a mute?What it means is that you can’tpadlock your lips shut! You have to make yourself k’ileim, like a mute, as if you can’t speak. You have to talk, and sometimes you have to talk and talk, but you have to talk like somebody who is an ileim. If you have to walk through the street, you have to say good morning or good evening to the people you see. You can’t just walk around with a deadpan face ignoring people. Why should your neighbor suffer because you’re learning a new profession?! You come into the home, so you have to walk in and say, “How was your day Chanaleh?” At least that you have to say! You can’t come in and be an ileim. A boy comes in from the yeshiva, he can’t walk in quietly and go to his room. He has to say “Vus machstu mammeh?” “How are you Papa?” Something he has to say! He’s k’ileim, not an ileim mamish.That’s why the gemara says, Yachol la’kol – “You might think that once you adopt this practice so you shouldn’t open your mouth for anything.” תלמוד לומר צדק תדברון – “So the possuk says, ‘Speak righteousness.’” When it comes to words of righteousness you have to talk.” Divrei Torah you have to talk. Words of kindliness you have to talk. If someone is sad and dejected you must go over and put your arm around his shoulders and say a few kind words to him. Tzedek tidabeirun. Good things you must say!DON’T COMPLIMENT THE CHALLAH…To say words of encouragement to your fellow man, to comfort a fellow Jew, that’s what you have a mouth for, that’s part of your profession. You don’t have to babble though. Think of ways and means of making people happy, by saying a timely word. If it’s a child then sometimes a little glett on the cheek and a word or two can be a lifesaver. Tell him something that buoys his self respect, something that gives him the ambition to continue improving.If you tell your wife that she cooks well – that’s very important by the way – that’s tzedek. You make sure to compliment your wife when she serves you anything: “Chanaleh, this challah tastes excellent.” Now if she bought it at the bakery, make sure not to praise the challah; find something else to be m’shabeiach. “This chicken soup is m’ein Olam Habah, Chanaleh. Yi’yasheir koi’ach”Now usually it does taste good; you can find many things to compliment. Don’t be bashful! It’s not the time to be k’ileim – now it’s time for tzedek tidabeirun. And even if it happens, an unusual incident, when supper is not such a success, if you’ll say it’s excellent, there’s no harm either. Only that most people have it all wrong; when they have what to complain about, then the words come gushing forth, pearls of “wisdom.” But when it’s time for tzedek tidabeirun, then suddenly this “tzadik” remembers his profession of being k’ileim.PRACTICE MAKES PERFECTIt’s an art. Sometimes you have to talk and talk, but you have to talk like an ileim. You’re always careful not to say what you’re not supposed to say. But what you have to say, you must say. So when you come home tonight and your wife says, “What did he say over there?” Don’t say “Ummmmmm.” Say something. Say it briefly but say something. Don’t just keep your mouth closed. K’ileim, like a mute! Oh, now that’s already an umnus. It’s harder than just lying on your back under a sink studying how to plumb!And therefore we should get busy practicing this profession of shtikah because it means that we’re practicing the career of yiras shamayim! You’re sitting at the table at the Shabbos seudah, and everyone is prattling away. Talking and talking and talking. So what do you do? You say to yourself, “I’m going to train myself now for my profession in this world. I’m going to sit for two minutes – two minutes on the clock – and listen and not open my mouth.”Let’s say you were forced to go somewhere; sometimes you have to go to visit your in-laws in Boro Park. You can’t say no this time. So they’re eating melave malka and everybody is chatting. Or maybe you’re sitting at a chasuna and all around you all the tongues are clacking. While their minds are being ground to pieces by the idle chatter, you can grab the opportunity for getting to work on your profession. So you’re paying attention; you’re trying to seem interested, smiling at the right times. But you’re telling yourself, “Chaim, keep the mouth closed. As much as you can keep quiet because Elokim is bashomayimlistening.”Part III. The Best MedicineVALUABLE HEALTH ADVICENow, to make a career out of silence because of Elokim Bashomayim, that would be enough. That’s our primary obligation in this world – to prepare for Olam Haba by training ourselves to become more and more aware of Hashem. But it’s more than that; it’s also your happiness and success in Olam Hazeh!There’s a mishnah in Avos (1:17) that says the following: שמעון בנו אומר, “Shimon, the son of Rabban Gamliel said, כל ימי גדלתי בין החכמים, all the days of my life I grew up among the wise men, ולא מצאתי לגוף טוב משתיקה, and I found nothing better for the body than silence.” Now, if someone on the street would offer you some health advice, I don’t know how valuable it would be; could be it’s worth something, but you never know for sure. But here you have a man who spent years and years sitting at the feet of the sages. “All my days, I grew up among the sages.” And he heard many important ideas, many important attitudes, and he studied them all. And after many years of investigating he came to the conclusion that of all the things that are good for a person, the best one is shesikah, silence.Now if Shimon bequeathed to us this gem, it pays for us to study his words. He said, “I’ve found nothing better for the body than silence.” He didn’t say it’s the best for your neshama; it’s certainly is good for your soul too, but Shimon is telling us here that for your physical health, there is nothing as good as keeping your mouth closed. If you’re worried about your health, if you’re a person who wants to live a long healthy life, then the first thing to think about is the remedy of silence. סמא דכולה משתוקא – “The best medicine of all is silence” (Megillah 18a).THE CAUSE OF MOST ILLNESSESYou know that most illnesses, most of the disturbances that take place in our bodies, are caused by emotions that have aroused a raw reaction in our bodies. It’s remarkable what a great effect emotions have on a person’s physical nature. We are full of glands and hormones that stimulate the functions of the body; and if the body is overstimulated by emotions like anger, tension, and nerves, then instead of being beneficial, these hormones are harmful.It’s established already in medical science. All over the body there are results that come from wrong stimulation of the emotions. And how are the emotions stimulated most? Talking! Someone says something and you answer back, then you talk and argue, and that’s when the trouble begins. The metabolism is upset and very many people become ill as a result. A world of illnesses are caused by talking. Very many cases of cancer are due to friction in human relationships.YOUR MIGHTY MOUTHA man told me, “Do you know why I’m blind?” A blind man told me this. Because he was so aggravated – these are his words – he was so aggravated because of troubles in the family that he acquired diabetes and became blind. Blindness many times comes from aggravation, from excitation. When people go to an eye specialist one of the first questions they’ll ask you is, “Do you get angry or excited?” Dovid Hamelech said (Tehillim 6:8) עששה מכעס עיני – “My eye became worn out because of ka’as, עתקה מכל צוררי, it grew old because of those who aggravated me.” So if you talk to people and get into arguments, it’s bad for your eyesight. And if it’s bad for your eyes that means that it’s wreaking havoc in your body; it’s bad for everything.Heart failure too! You open your mouth when you could have kept it closed and the heart becomes subjected to too much stress; the valves cannot take it and there’s a breakdown somewhere, a weakness in a valve someplace. Just by talking too much, there’s quarreling, there’s tension, nervous excitement, and your heart is suffering from it. I’m not saying that it happens all of a sudden, but gradually your big mouth is weakening your heart, and then one day, chalilah, it breaks down.WHERE DO PEOPLE DIE?I know of a man who dropped dead in the middle of an argument with his wife. He was a fine man, by the way, a good man. But if he would have studied this mishna in Pirkei Avos, he would have known “Don’t answer back!” And that would have saved him; he’d probably still be alive today. Who told you to answer back?! If you can be a diplomat and say something nice, do it. But if not, don’t say anything. He was a frum young man – he probably even knew this mishna – but he never studied it, and so he acted according to his nature and he answered back. He said his piece, and she answered back, and it went back and forth, back and forth until he dropped dead.It happens again and again. Don’t you read sometimes in the paper – a certain man, so and so, died of heart failure. Where did his heart attack happen? Did he die in his business because of his competitors? No, people don’t die because of their competitors. Did he die on the street because someone in the street insulted him? People don’t usually die because someone insulted them. He dies at home! People die because of their wives! Of course the newspaper will never say that. The obituary published in the newspapers will never say, “Mr. Anderson dropped dead Sunday night after an argument with his wife!” No, no, it won’t say that! It says, “Mr. Anderson died peacefully in his sleep at his home this past Sunday.” But if you know how to read the obituary pages, so you already know what that means.COMMUNICATION ISSUES?Why didn’t he die at his business? Why at his home? The answer is at home he has a wife, and most people die as a result of words. I’m not saying he’s right – who told him to react?! Who told him to bump his head against a stone wall? Arguing with a wife? Do you know what it’s like? It’s like he’s sticking a needle into her, a real needle. And she’s sticking needles into him. Is that fun? All of their lives they are “needling” each other. Only that his heart, his constitution was a bit weaker than his wife’s. You can’t win an argument! You think you’ll win an argument with your wife?! You’ll never win! The only real way to win an argument is to avoid it. So don’t get excited over nothing. Keep quiet and that’s all. Just keep quiet! And both of you will live longer as a result. And you’ll live happier lives as well.Women call me up; they say, “We have communication issues. My husband doesn’t ‘communicate’ with me.” The trouble is there’s too much communication! If they wouldn’t communicate so much they’d be much better off; in most cases people will profit by not talking.IGNORE THE BUMIn Mesichta Sanhedrin (7a) it says: טוביה דשמע ואדיש – “Happy is the man who hears people saying things that insult him, that bother him, and he ignores it, חלפוה בישתיה מאה – A hundred evils will pass him by.” Memorize those words; say them to yourself again and again. Learn to ignore any words you don’t like; somebody said something sharp to you, so שמע, you heard it, but אדיש, it doesn’t bother you. Pay no attention; make believe you never even heard it, and you’ll be spared from many troubles. If your husband is mean to you, pay no attention. If your wife is mean to you, pay no attention. And one hundred evils will pass you by. You’ll live together happily for the rest of your life.Most of the time, a punch in the nose is a result of opening up a mouth instead of ignoring. Suppose you’re walking in the street and a bum says something insulting to you. Forget about it! Don’t feel that you have to stand up and defend your honor. Oh no! Don’t do that. I know a man who did that and he got beaten up. Don’t even look at him; it’s dangerous. As far as you’re concerned you didn’t hear it, you didn’t hear anything. Keep walking and in another minute, you’re out of danger. And thank Hashem that you’re able to keep on walking. If it’s a goy who insults you, so you can give him a bracha that he should drop dead. Don’t let him hear you though! Don’t even mutter; don’t say it with your mouth. The mouth always stays closed!CHINESE WISDOM FOR LIFEI was walking in the street once, and two shkutzim, two young men came over to me and blocked the sidewalk; they didn’t let me go further. I couldn’t walk; I was stuck. So I got out off the sidewalk and I kept going. I didn’t say anything, I didn’t even take a peek over my shoulder. Suppose I looked back and said, “What do you think you’re doing? What right do you have to do that?” Ohhh, what would have happened to me! Don’t be a chacham, a hero. I always quote to you the wise Chinese proverb. The Chinamen say “The greatest hero is the one who runs away.” If you ignore and run away you’re a hero. And the one who opens up his mouth is not a hero, he’s a loser.I always say this story; it’s a tragic story. A young man from YU was going on chamisha asar b’shvat outingto Madison Square Garden. He was with a group of younger boys, a chaburah of boys with yarmulkes on, and he was leading them. And two twenty year old shkutzim were ridiculing the boys’ yarmulkas. Now this young man, he didn’t take the advice of chazal. At least the Chinese he should have listened to!Instead he looked at the gentile boys with anger and said something. Now a goy bleibt a goy, so the shkutzim went back to their car, they took out a hammer from the trunk, and they attacked him. They hit him over the head with the hammer and they killed him. He died there on the street, nebach. That’s why it says, “There’s nothing better for the body than keeping quiet.”HOW TO DEAL WITH HATELet’s say somebody calls you on the telephone and insults you. It happened to me a number of times. People have called the house and cursed me. You know what I did? I didn’t say a word! Not a word! And they hung up. It happened again a few months ago and I knew who it was; I knew. And after that he came into my shul one evening to daven and I didn’t say a word. And it was finished. But once you start up with these people, who knows what’s going to be? A word for a word and it turns into who knows what! There’s no knowing how it’s going to end up! So just grin and bear it.How many people have lost their jobs by talking back to their boss? Sometimes their boss is in a bad mood, so just swallow down what he said and it could be that an hour later he’ll be a good boss. He might even promote you. I had that experience once. In my first position in rabbanus, a man once came into a meeting of the board of directors and he made a grand announcement: He said, “Rabbi Miller, I greeted you last week and you didn’t answer me! You didn’t answer me ‘Good Shabbos.’” He brought it up to the board of directors at a meeting; a complaint against the new rabbi. So the president of the shul came over and asked me about it. Now, it wasn’t true, but I didn’t say anything. I could have opened my mouth, but I remembered this ma’amar chazal and I kept my mouth closed.RABBI MILLER GETS A RAISE!I met this man again and again, he was a shul member, and I was always friendly to him. One day he gets up by the meeting of the board of directors and he makes a motion to give me a raise. This man! No one thought of giving me a raise except this one man! Now, had I answered him back it would have never happened. And so I learned the lesson that it “pays” to keep your mouth closed.I’ve seen it all! I’ve watched as people put themselves in danger by opening a mouth. Just because they answered back, I’ve watched good people lose jobs, lose customers. They lost their wives or their husbands, siblings and friends. And sooner or later they lose themselves; they excite wrong reactions in their bodies and they end up sick. Many lose years from their life because of their mouths.THE KEY TO A GOOD LIFEAnd that’s what Dovid Hamelech tells us (Tehillim 34:13-14): מי האיש החפץ חיים – “Who is the man who wants life?” We think it means eternal life, and that’s true; but it’s not the whole truth. There’s more to it: Who wants to live in this world? אוהב ימים – “You’re an oheiv yomim?” You like days, don’t you? You want more and more of them. לראות טוב – “You want to see happiness and good times during those days?” You want to see yourself getting along well with others? You want a successful marriage? You want to see good health? That’s all included in lir’os tov. “Oh,” you say. “That’s me! I want to live long! I want to see good times!”But you don’t! You’re not really interested in trying to live long. You’ll say it, you’ll repeat it, you’ll even sing it, but you don’t think about it. You have to take steps to live long, and one of the most important steps is to keep the mouth closed. נצור לשונך מרע – “Guard your tongue against evil”. What does “evil” mean? Not only you shouldn’t say derogatory things about people or quarrel with them. The real lashon hara is opening your mouth to say stupid things, to chatter and babble and say nothing. The general rule is to keep your tongue on the inside of the mouth and keep the mouth closed; that’s the rule you should follow. If we live according to that, our physical happiness in this world will increase and we will attain a life of lir’os tov, of seeing good times.A MOMENT OF SILENCESo we go back to the great principle that the job of a person in this world is to learn the skill of being quiet, the profession of being like an ileim. And before we conclude we’ll listen to the words of a great man, the Vilna Gaon (Igeres Hagra); these words deserve to be remembered by us. שעל כל רגע ורגע – “For every moment, for every minute, שאדם חוסם פיו – that a man muzzles his mouth, זוכה לאור הגנוז – He’ll be rewarded by that secret brilliance, שאין כל מלאך יכול לשער – that no creature, no angel, is capable of measuring its magnitude.”The splendor of reward is so great for one minute of silence! We’re not talking about a whole lifetime of silence; he says there that for every moment that you keep your mouth closed, you’ll be rewarded with a splendor, a brilliance that is so great that even an angel is not capable of measuring the magnitude, the extent of its greatness. I know that this is a very extreme statement but the Vina Gaon is a very responsible personality. So it’s not only a profession of yiras shamayim, and not only is it the best advice for good health and long life, but it’s a career that will reward you beyond your highest dreams.LEARNING THE LESSONAnd so we have to get busy. How can you read about the metzora every year, and continue to ignore the lessons for your own life? Even if today we aren’t privileged to see the miraculous hand of Hashem bringing tzara’as on a person, but the lessons remain as applicable today as they were then. When Hashem separated a good man, a loyal frum Jew, from his family and friends, he was expected to learn this lesson of “Elokim is ba’shomayim listening to you … therefore your words should be few.” And we, no less than him, are expected to learn that lesson as well.And so we have to delve into these pesukim and apply them to our own lives. This man had to cover his mouth; what about me? Am I an adam yet? Am I producing enough silence? Am I succeeding at my profession of making myself k’ileim? And so when we study this parsha, we can’t just let it pass by. As often as you can during the day, a minute here and a minute there, you remind yourself that it’s your job to be as silent as you can. Not complete silence – tzedektidabeirun! But as far as everything else we will try to be as careful as possible and remember that לך דומיה תהילה, to You Hashem silence is praise, and thereby we gain the great reward of Hashem, a reward unknown even to the angels. 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Part I.Torah of KohanimEVERYONE IS JEALOUS OF RABBI MILLERInParshas Tzavwe continue our encounter with theavodahof thekohanim, the ones privileged to stand in the service of Hashem in the Beis Hamikdash. And we find ourselves inundated with the especial attention given tokohanim. Laws upon laws for the descendants of Aharon that place them on a pedestal; rules meant to regulate the behavior of the aristocracy. Now, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable or jealous of me [The Rav was a kohen], but week after week, inVayikra, Tzav, Shmini, and actually in most ofSefer Vayikra,we become more and more impressed with the great honor and privilege accorded to thekohanim.I know that most of us here have already accepted the maxim of democracy, equality for everyone, so you don’t want to think too much about it, but the truth is when theBnei Leviwere chosen to be theKohanei Hashem, it was a great pride for them. Thekohenwalked with a swagger; he was on top of the world! It wasn’t just a matter of being called to officiate at apidyon habenor to benefit from theterumosand othermatnos kehunah.It was a great prerogative, a great privilege, to be the servant of Hashem in His house. And I have no doubt that the rest of theAm Yisroelwere disappointed and jealous. Thebechorim,who had lost this privilege, surely were jealous, but I’m sure thateveryonelooked at thekohanimwith envy.TRESPASSING ON HOLY GROUNDSTo be akohenwas an eternal privilege of closeness to Hashem. והיו לי הלויים – “And the Levites shall be Mine” (Bamidbar 3:12); and when Hashem says “Mine”, you have to know, He means “Mineforever.” Themedrashsays that. “Wherever it says לי, ‘Mine’, it’s for all time; in this world and in the World to Come” (Vayikra Rabbah 2:2). And therefore, to be chosen askohanimby Hashem “To be Mine” was the greatest of honors; an honor for eternity, that most of the Am Yisroel could only pine for.And therefore, as we make our way throughSefer Vayikra,we understand that we are treading on holy ground. We are being taken on a tour of sorts through the Beis Hamikdash and theavodashakorbanos, and we feel as if we don’t belong. We have stepped over the boundary into a world ofkehunah, a world ofkedushah, and we tiptoe throughparshiyosVayikra,TzavandSheminias if trespassing on forbidden grounds.And then, as we tiptoe through the Mikdash feeling out of place and alienated from all of these priestly laws, suddenly we bump our heads against something we weren’t expecting. And it’s a curious thing. Right in the middle of the laws ofkohanimand theirkorbanos, we chance upon apossukthat veers from the topic, words that are directed at all of theAm Yisroel.כל חלב שור וכשב ועז לא תאכלו – “Any fat of oxen, sheep, or goats, you shall not eat”(Tzav 7:23). It’s apossukthat’s telling us aboutchullin, ordinary meat, eaten in our own homes.MISPLACEDPESSUKIM?The Torah here, in aparshadedicated to thekohanim, is talking toLevi’imandYisraelimas well; men, women and children; anyone of theAm Yisroel. And we are told that we are forbidden to eat thecheilev, a certain type of fat, from these animals. And that’s a question; what’schullin, ordinary meat, doing here inVayikra, theToras Kohanim? Why are we discussing our home kitchens inParshas Tzav?Now actually if we study the end of thepossuk, we find that the Torah provides us with a clue: כי כל אכל חלב מן הבהמה אשר יקריב ממנה אשה להשם ונכרתה הנפש האוכלת מעמיה – “For anyone who eats the fat of an animal speciesfrom which one may bring a fire-offering to Hashem, the soul of the one that eats shall be cut off from its people” (Ibid. 7:23-25). So we see that the Torah adds a few words here: אשר יקריב ממנה, only the fats of animals that could be used as offerings are forbidden. A lamb, a calf, itcouldbe brought on themizbeiach, so itscheilevisossur. But it’s forbidden even if it’snotakorban!Now, at first glance, this reasoning is a bit difficult to understand. Just because thekohenworking in the Mikdash was once required to remove the fats from a calf and place them on themizbeiachin service of Hashem, what does that have to do with how I prepare the steak in my kitchen today? It’s not akorbanafter all! You know that to remove thecheileventails a laborious process calledtreibering. You can’t do it on your own. Someone has to be hired, someone who knows what he’s doing, and we pay good money for that. And for what? We’re not talking here about akorban, where thecheilevis offered up on themizbeiach. We’re speaking of ordinary meat here, ofchullin. Why can’t we eat thecheilevof ordinary meat? I don’t know if it bothers you, but I think it’s a good question.WHAT’S WRONG WITH EATING BLOOD?And in the nextpossukwe find a similar idea: וכל דם לא תאכלו בכל מושבותיכם לעוף ולבהמה כל נפש אשר תאכל כל דם ונכרתה הנפש ההיא מעמיה – “And all blood shall not be consumed by you,in any of your dwelling places,whether from fowl or from animals. Any person who consumes any blood, his soul shall be cut off from its people” (ibid. 26-27).In any of your dwelling places!Even outside of theMikdash, wherever the Jew, a non-Kohen, eats his ordinary meat, he must make sure to remove the blood from the animal.So the blood of an ordinarybeheimahisossurfor us. That costs us too! We’re spending a lot of money on kosher meat today and some of it is because of themelichah, the salting, because we can’t have blood in our meat. Why now, when being taught about thekorbanos, are we being told that we can’t havedaminourmeat?WHY ARE WE PLAYING “BEIS HAMIKDASH”?And the answer is not a secret. The Torah tells us; it states openly that the reason is becausedambelongs on themizbei’ach: כי נפש הבשר בדם היא ואני נתתיו לכם על המזבח לכפר על נפשותיכם כי הדם הוא בנפש יכפר – “For the life of a person is in the blood, and I have assigned it for you to be put on themizbeiachto atone for your lives, for it is the blood that atones for one’s life” (ibid. 17:11). That’s why in the Beis Hamikdash the blood can’t be eaten, it’s sacred. It has to be thrown on the sides of themizbeiach. That’s how the one who brings the korban gets hiskapparah.Now, by akorban, I understand. Its blood can’t be eaten, it’s sacred. But we’re not eatingkorbanos! It’s our ordinary food, ourchullin, and the blood is notli’chapeir! We’re not pouring thedamonto themizbeiachto be akapparah. And yet, it’s forbidden. And so instead of pouring it on themizbeiach, we’re commanded על הארץ תשפכנו כמים – “Pour it onto the ground” (Devarim 12:16). And that’s becausehadthis animal been akorban, its bloodwould have beenpoured onto themizbeiach. So we see again that we approach ourchullinfood the same way thekohanimapproached theirkodshimin the Beis Hamikdash. חקת עולם לדורותיכם בכל מושבותיכם כל חלב וכל דם לא תאכלו – “It’s an eternal decree for your generationsin all your dwelling places; you may not consume any fat or any blood” (Vayikra 3:17). And that’s a question. Why am I playing “Beis Hamikdash” in my kitchen?A KOHEN HAS TO LOOK GOODAnd what’s even more remarkable is that it’s not only regarding laws of thekorbanosthat we find this crossing of the boundaries. It permeates our daily lives as well. The Kohanim are commanded: אמר אל הכהנים…לא יקרחו קרחה בראשם ופאת זקנם לא יגלחו ובבשרם לא ישרטו שרטת – “They shouldn’t make a bald spot on their heads, and they shouldn’t shave the edges of their beard, and in their flesh they shall not cut a gash” (Vayikra 21:5). Akohenhas to look like an aristocrat; like a prince. And Hashem tells us why: כי את אשי השם לחם אלוקיהם הם מקריבים והיו קודש- “Because the fire-offerings of Hashem, the food of their G-d, they offer, and so they must remain holy” (ibid. 21:6). They are servants of Hashem, and so they must look the part; their exterior appearance must be befitting of those who stand before Hashem in His service. The holykohanimmust always appear to others as men of distinction.And yet, these priestly laws are repeated again, this time as a command for the whole nation. Thepossuksays: לא תקיפו פאת ראשכם ולא תשחית את פאת זקניך ושרט לנפש לא תתנו בבשרכם – “You shall not round off the edges of your scalp, and you shall not destroy the edge of your beard. And you shall not make a cut in your flesh for the dead” (ibid. 19:27-28).בנים אתם להשם אלוקיכם לא תתגודדו ולא תשימו קרחה בין עיניכם למת – “You are children to Hashem your G-d, do not make gashes and do not make bald spots on your heads” (Devarim 14:1).Here the Torah is repeating to the Am Yisroel the same commandment that was told to thekohanim. And the reason given is: כי עם קדוש אתה להשם אלוקיך ובך בחר השם להיות לו לעם סגולה מכל העמים אשר על פני האדמה – “For you are a holy people to Hashem, and Hashem has chosen you to be His treasured people from all of the peoples on the face of the earth” (ibid 14:2). So what was said first to thekohanim, as an admonition because of והיו קודש, so that “they should be holy,” that same thing is subsequently told to the Klal Yisroelwith the identical reason, כי עם קדוש אתה להשם אלוקיך, because you are a holy nation set aside for the service of Hashem.SOME SECRETS ARE EASILY REVEALEDNow, I’m not capable of revealing the secrets of the Torah, but certain things are apparent even to our minds. Because it’s remarkable! The same commandments given to thekohenbecause of his prestigious status are duplicated almost word for word, for the Yisroel, for the most “simple” Jew. Each commandment!Korcha, baldness of the head.Sritah, cutting yourself.P’aszekanam lo yigaleichu,not to cut the corners of the beard. The Am Yisroel walks lock step with thekohanei Hashem!Now of course there are reasons why things are repeated – we learn details from the repetition, newhalachos. But right now we’re talking about thepshuto shel mikra.And thepshuto shel mikrais telling us something here. The intention of Hashem is evident in thesepesukim, and that is of an entire nation patterning their lives after the laws of thekohanim. And if we pay attention to the words of the Torah, we’ll see that this intention of Hashem began already atMattan Torah.HASHEM’S TREASURE CHESTBefore the Torah was given, Hakodosh Boruch Hu made a declaration to the Am Yisroel. Now, even the people who know thispossuk, usually understand it as a poetic expression; something beautiful and noble, but that’s about it. However it’s not merely poetic and so we should listen well to His words: “I’m going to do something now,” said Hashem, “that’s going to change the nature of the entire people. The wholeKlal Yisroelwill become different now. If you will stand at Har Sinai and you say, ‘Na’aseh v’nishma; Yes, Hashem, we accept You forever and ever,’ then I’m going to make you into an exceptional type of people.” והייתם לי סגולה מכל העמים – “You’ll be for Me a special treasure from all the nations; the whole nation will be forever chosen as My prized possession” (Shemos 19:5).Now,Am Segulah, doesn’t merely mean “I’m going to give yousemichah; I’m going to give you a rabbinical certificate to hang on the wall and you’ll be honored just by the title.” No; it’s much more than that.Segulahmeans that your nature is going to change. Your character will be entirely metamorphosed and you’ll become an entirely different type of people. At Har Sinai not only did we adopt certain attitudes and promise to remain faithful to them, but we became an entirely different people then we were before.THE JEWS ARE NOT A NATIONWhat that means is that our status in this world, our place in the history of the world was now changed. That’s what Hashem was letting us know. “From now on it’s going to be different. I’m going to raise you up and make out of you an entirely new type of people – anAmSegulah.” Not merely that we are a good nation; not merely that we are the best nation.We are no longer one of the nations of the world! We were chosen and elevated to a status that is far above the status of Mankind. That’s a tremendous concept! A Jew is more than human – no matter what you’re going to say in objection. That’s what the Torah is telling us.And what is our function as Hashem’s treasured nation? Here come the following words which I wish to speak abouttonight, because they are really the answer to the questions we asked earlier: ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים – “You’re going to be to Me a Nation of Kohanim, וגוי קדוש – And a Holy People.” אלה הדברים אשר תדבר אל בני ישראל – Take these words and tell it to the Bnei Yisroel”(Shemos 19:6). “Make sure the people understand what I’m saying now very well,” Hashem said to Moshe Rabeinu.What we’re hearing now is that these words, that we were to become now aMamlechesKohanim,are of the utmost importance. Everything is important in the Torah, but these words are especially outstanding. Now, I don’t imagine myself capable of explaining them properly, but one aspect of these words we’ll talk about now.THE MOST REMARKABLE PROFESSIONFirst we’ll have to understand the wordkohen. Like we said earlier, akohenis one who is privileged to have been chosen for the most remarkable profession possible. And that profession is the service of Hashem. That’s who he is, akohen. He might be let’s say a plumber as well, or maybe a shoemaker. But that’s alltafel, it’s tangential to his primary function in this world which is the service of Hashem. Akohenknows that his life is dedicated to Hashem. He was born akohen, he lives his life akohen, and he will take his last breath as akohen. All the days of his life are a lifelong career standing ready to serve Hakodosh Boruch Hu.And therefore when Hashem declared that He had chosen us to be HisMamleches Kohanim, His “Kingdom of Priests,” He was charging us with the responsibility ofkohanim. What it means is “a kingdomconsistingof priests” – a nation in which every individual, man woman and child, is akohenliving a life of holiness in the service of Hashem.And so, while we imagined that all of these laws for the Am Yisroel don’t belong here inVayikra, what we’re learning now is that theydobelong! Thekohanimwere given these laws because of their special status – and then, to emphasize our status asKohanei Hashem,Hakodosh Boruch Hu said to all of us as well, “You too, all of you, are myMamleches Kohanim, and are to act in the same manner as mykohanim.”DON’T WAIT FOR BAMIDBARAnd so we come back toSefer Vayikra,and we see the laws of thekohanimin a different light altogether. Because we understand that whatever is said aboutkohanimis a hint for what Hakodosh Boruch Hu wantsusto be. Now maybe you never heard this before, but you should take it seriously – it’s not just talk. ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים means that whatever you’re going to hear about thekohaniminSefer Vayikra– the wholeVayikrais calledToras Kohanimbecause it deal with the laws ofkohanim– don’t think that it’s only forkohanim. Don’t sit back duringkriyas hatorahand wait forBamidbarandDevarim, for the parts that you think are more suited to you. No, no;Vayikrais for you! It’s there to be utilized as a lesson, as model for every person in theAm Yisroel.When Hashem said, “You’ll be amamleches kohanim,” it means, “I’m telling you howkohanimhave to behave, what duties they have and what privileges they have,and you should know that I intend that you should study them and emulate these principles.Now, I want that to sink in because these words are not amashal, not mere words. You’re hearing here a fundamental truth of the Torah and if you didn’t know it before, now is the time. And that is the great lesson ofMamlechesKohanim– that we are theKohaneiHashemof this world. The rest of theworld, all the nations of the world, make their way through the days of life, fulfilling their purpose of being the משפחות האדמה, nations whose purpose isthisworld. And we appreciate that; we don’t hold it against them. We need the Italians and the Irishmen. We need the construction workers and garbage men; wewantthem to be busy with theadamah.Yet, while theumos haolam areengaged in living in this world, solely for this world, we theKohanei Hashem, spend our days living in this world – we have plumbers and truck drivers too – but we do it all while standing in the service of Hakodosh Boruch Hu as if we werekohanimstanding in the Beis Hamikdash.IT’S NOT POETRYAnd in order that it should be clear that the expression “a kingdom of priests” is not merely a poetic declaration but an actual status, Hakodosh Boruch Hu commanded the Am Yisroel in the same priestly laws as thekohanim. Just like thekohanimare commanded to zealously guard their dignity, so too are we commanded not to abuse our bodies with gashes; we are forbidden from making bald spots on our heads and from cutting the corners of our beards. And all this because we are acting out in our own lives, in our own homes, the same function that thekohanimact out in the Beis Hamikdash. Thekohanimhave one function and that is to serve Hashem. And we theMamlechesKohanimhave that same exact function.And because we arekohanimtoo, Hakodosh Boruch Hu tells us: “If this animal would have been offered up to Hashem, thecheilevwould have to be removed and brought up on the fire, and thedamsprinkled on the sides of themizbeiach,before partaking of the meat. And so, even when it’schullin, ordinary meat that you’re eating you must also remove thecheilevand thedam.”Even though your own personalshechitahis not anavodahof akorban– you’re merely standing in the kitchen preparing supper for your family – Hashem tells you that you are to treat it like anavodah, because theMamleches Kohanimis always standing before Hashem in His service.And therefore, just like thekohenwho was working alongside themizbeiach, we can’t eat thecheilevof ourbeheimos. And the blood that would have been sprinkled on themizbeiachhad this animal been akorban, we spill it out to the ground. The preparation of our food, reminds us that we don’t have the same function as themishpachos ha’adamah! Ourshechitais not merelyshechitas chullin– it’s an echo of theshechitas kodshimthat took place in the Beis Hamikdash.NO ROMPING ON TABLESAnd that’s why the Am Yisroel always understood that when you sit around the Jewish table it’s like sitting around themizbeiach. זה השולחן אשר לפני השם. The Jewish table is called amizbeiach(Chagigah 27a). It sounds like a queer thing to say, but it’s not just words. In the Jewish home if the children were playing in the house, romping around, and a boy sat on the table for a moment, the mother would shoo him away; “Off the table! You can’t sit on amizbeiach!” That’s how it used to be. A man told me that; he said his mother used to drive him off the table. “A Jewish table is holy,” she told him.The table in a frum home is holy, it’s amizbeiach. Not only because you eatkosherfood, and feedaniyimat your table. It’s not only because you say somedivrei Torahat theseudah.Ofcourse we do that too, all that is important; but understanding that your table in the kitchen is amizbeiachis much more than that. It’s a reminder that as much as possible, all of what you do in the home is to be done in the service of Hashem. So when you sit at the table, you’re thinking of ways, opportunities to speak about Hashem; to praise Hashem, to praise frum Jews, to praise the Torah, to praise the Torah communities. Not just that you make a token donation to the cause by sayingBoruch atah Hashem.That too is good but a nation ofkohanimdoes much more than that. As much as possible you’re thinking about Hashem while you’re eating, and you’re serving Hashem like akohenthinking about Hashem while serving at themizbeiach.Part II.Every Jew a KohenTHEKIYORAT THE SIDE OF YOUR BEDAnd so the person who recognizes his place in this world understands that he is really living his entire live in emulation of thekohanim. As much as possible, from morning till night, you keep in mind that you’re akohenmaking your way through life as a servant of Hashem. And that’s why in the morning as soon as you get up you pour water over your hands. What’s the point, what’s so important aboutneggel vasser? Listen to this carefully. The Rashba (Teshuvos HaRashba 1:191) says thatnegel vasseris for the purpose of showing that we areKohanei Hashem.That’s why when you wash your hands in the morning, you use akli,a vessel, just like thekohanimused in the Mikdash when they prepared themselves for theavodah. ככהן המקדש ידיו מן הכיור קודם עבודתו – “You are like akohenwho purifies his hands from thekiyorbefore his service.” Those are the words of the Rashba.By thekohanimit says, ורחצו ידיהם ורגליהם בגשתם לשרת. Thekohanimhave to wash their hands as a preparation for tremendous opportunity to work in the Mikdash. But what does that have to do with us? Because we are emulating thekohanim.We are serving Hashem; that’s our business in life. You get up in the morning and what do you do? You’re akohenwashing your hands getting ready foravodas Hashem. And so the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning, before anything else, you prepare for the day with the most important information that you need. You remind yourself that you’re akohen, that you’re a member of theMamleches Kohanim.When you wake up in the morning, what are you getting up for? To go to work? To go to school? To be an accountant? No, you’re getting up in order to serve Hashem all day long.And therefore, as you wash your hands, don’t just pour the water without thinking. What a waste! Think, better yet say, “I am doing this now because I am akohen. Hashem has appointed me to be part of His ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש.” Our entire lives are dedicated to serving Hashem. Whether you’re in your office working, in the kitchen cooking, or cleaning diapers in the laundry room, you’re serving Hashem. Besides for yourdaveningand learning, you should know that whatever else you do is all part of serving Hakodosh Boruch Hu. You’re aneved ne’emanand you’re akohen, and therefore the washing of the hands – the preparation for a day of serving Hashem is a very important symbol. And it should be utilized by you to make yourself aware of your status. It’s a shame to waste that glorious opportunity that you have every morning. And most people are missing it altogether. That first act of the day, if done with thought, sets the tone for the rest of the day – that everything you will do, you’ll be doing as a servant of Hashem.THE HILL ON YOUR HEADAnd therefore we can carry the comparison still further. We read a few weeks ago about thebigdei kehuna. And the one garment that is especially described as being worn “for honor and for beauty” was themigba’as, the headgear, of the Kohen. ומגבעות תעשה להם לכבוד ולתפארת – “And the headgear you shall make for them, for honor and for beauty” (Shemos 28:40). You know that the wordmigba’as,headgear, is related to the wordgiv’ah, a hill, an elevation. And that’s because the Kohen appears taller because of hismigba’as. It added to his height, to denote his superiority as a servant of Hashem. He wore this crown of “honor and beauty” to demonstrate to everyone the importance of his service and his pride in being able to serve Hakodosh Boruch Hu.You know, once upon a time the whole Klal Yisroel didn’t wear hats. But everyone knew that thekohenwore amitznefes. They knew that, and it meant something to them; there was a tinge of kosher jealousy there. And so the Am Yisroel said, “If thekohanimwear amitznefeswhy shouldn’t we?!” And so little by little themamlecheskohanim, the whole Am Yisroel, began to cover up their headsbecause they understood that as much as we can we emulate the kohanim.THE REAL PSHAT IN “SHIVISI”And so when you cover your head today; when you put on your hat, youryarmulke, what you’re doing is walking in the footsteps of the Jews of ancient times who knew that they werekohanimtoo. And if you wear asheitel or tichelyou can add that thought as well. As often as you can you should be reminding yourself – if nobody is listening say it with your mouth – that you’re identifying with theMamlechesKohanim.Even though you are not akohenserving Hashem at themizbeiach, but you are serving Hashemno lessin your home, in your kitchen, at your place of work, or on the street outside. You are a part of theMamleches Kohanim, and that means that wherever you are, and whatever you’re doing, you’re standing in front of Hashem in His service. That’s the realpshatin שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד. Don’t tell me that you’re picturing the letters of Hashem’s name all the time. You don’t need the letters – you areactuallystanding before Him.When we study the fact thatkohanimwear special garments, we understand thatevery Jewis expected to look different in his garments. Now I’m not saying right now what you have to wear. If you’re from a certain neighborhood or from a certain group that wears let’s say long cloaks or you wear black hats very good, very good. Black hats by the way is a very good thing; if you’re able to emulate that practice in order to identify with the Torah community, it’s a greatness. But that’s not my subject right now. Because whatever it is, the point is that a decent Jew must be distinctive in the way he dresses; he has to be dignified in his dress. AYisroelcannot wear jeans for instance. Like it says by thebigdei kehuna,l’chavod u’li’siferes, he has to dress conventionally, in an honorable way. If he’ll wear jeans let’s say, or patched or torn clothing for the purpose of looking like a bum so he’s ignoring the model of themamleches kohanim.A PROFESSOR ACCOSTS RAV MILLERSo you’ll say what’s the sin? And I’ll tell you – it’s the lack of understanding of our status in this world! I met an Orthodox Jew in the street one day. I was walking in the street and a man accosted me – I was frightened. He looked like a bum! He was wearing a cap, a queer kind of cap, and queer clothing. And then I recognized him as an Orthodox college professor. I can’t blame him really; he’s among bums all day long so he has to camouflage himself so they should think he’s one of them. But that’s not how Hashem wants us to be! He wants us to look different because we are themamleches kohanimv’goy kadosh– we’re a holy people like thekohanim.Kohanimyou know are called a holy group of people. וקדשתו – “And you should make himkadosh” (Vayikra 21:8). It’s a commandment that we have to give a certain deference to akohen. We recognize that he is holy because he is a servant of Hashem and we therefore accord him a special respect. So you’re sitting at aseudah, and there’s a waiter there. So he’s can’t just serve one, two, three, whatever the seating order is. No, he knows thedinthat כהן נוטל חלק בראש – “Thekohenis served first.” That’s adinin thegemara, thekohencomes first. Thekohengets the first aliyah atkriyas hatorah, that you know already. But not only when it comes to analiyah; even when it comes to eating, he’s also first.In every matter, we give respect to the one who has been chosen as aneved Hashem.V’kidashto, we treat him with respect because he’s holy to Hashem. Because of his status, his function in this world as the servant of Hashem we accord him privileges and distinctions of honor. כי את לחם אלוקיך הוא מקריב – He’s serving Hashem, and that’s whyv’kidashto, that’s why you honor him above all others.YOUR HOLY SPOUSEAnd now, when we think about these words we hear an echo of the words קדושים תהיו – “And you, theAm Yisroel, should bekadosh” (ibid. 19:2). Not only is akohenakadosh, but every frum Jew iskadosh. What does the wordkadoshmean? It means set aside, set apart for Hashem, something that’s connected to Hashem.Every Jew iskadosh; it says that openly in the Torah that we’re amamleches kohanim v’goy kadosh.And so, when you deal with your fellow Jew, you have to watch out what you say. Of course, when you deal with agoyyou have to watch what you say as well, but it’s not the same at all. Your wife iskadosh, your husband iskadosh. You cannot just hurl words against each other recklessly. Be careful what you say! You have to know who you’re talking to. Would you talk like that to akohenin the Beis Hamikdash?! You have to respect akohen, and you have to respect theAm Kadosh. And just like akohenis treated with an especial dignity because he is holy to Hashem, that same respect and honor should be given to our fellow Jews.ENCOUNTER WITH GREATNESSSo you have to practice up on these truths. You see a fellow Jew, and you say under your breath, “There goes a holy person, one of thegoy kadosh.” That’s how to think when you pass a Jew in the street. It’s an encounter with greatness, withkedusha, and it’s important to get that into your head. And it will only happen if you train yourself to think these thoughts; “That man is holy; he’s from theMamleches Kohanim.”But not only do we have to consider our fellow Jew akadosh, but we have to consider ourselves askedoshim. Just like akohenhas to be careful with hiskedusha,you’re always reminding yourself, “I’m part of thegoy kadoshof Hashem; I’m set aside foravodas Hashem.”And so, since you’re always standing in front of Hashem, you must begin to train yourself to do as much as you canl’sheimshamayim. Little by little you train yourself to think about Hashem in whatever you are doing. And so, when you serve supper to your husband, to your family, why not? You’re a good frum wife, a loyal woman; you’ll say, “Certainly I serve my husband supper. What else should I do? He’s my husband. Any loyal wife would do this.” But now we’re seeing that that is not enough. Your job in this world is to be more than a wife who is loyal to her husband, and to her family. Because while you are doing all of these “mundane” activities, you are doing them with the intention that you are from themamleches kohanimand that you are serving Hashem.FLIPPING THE PANCAKESAnd that’s what Hakodosh Boruch Hu wants from you. That you should become more and morekadosh; more and more set aside for Himin your thoughts.And that means that as much as you can you try to do thingslisheimshamayim, which means that you’re aware that you’re serving Hashem. So you stand at your stove just like akohenstands at themizbeiach, putting onto the fire things to burn up to Hashem. And he’s מהפך בצינורא, he’s turning over the fats and pieces of thekorbanfor Hashem. And you’re standing there atyourmizbeiach, your stove, turning over the pancakes, and you’re serving Hashem no less than akohen. You’re thinking these thoughts; that you’re serving Hashem right now in your kitchen like thekohenserves Hashem in the Mikdash and the status of your home is elevated to a place of the service of Hashem.Now people will say, “Certainly I’m anoivedHashem, certainly. But that’s only part of my life; I have to do other things too. I have a job, I have a family.” And the answer is, no. ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים tells you that whatever you are doing in life, you’re still akohen Hashem.Look, akohencan also get a job; he also has a family. But he’s still akohen! So you have to go to your office, to your store, whatever it is, to make a living. But you’re still akohen Hashem. You have to take care of your children, feed them, bathe them. But that doesn’t in any way affect your status. You’re part of theMamleches Kohanimand you must keep that in mind always. Hashem took you out of Mitzrayim to be His servant and nothing can change that fundamental truth of your purpose in this world. AYisroelcan never change his function in life.BANGING NAILS L’SHEIM SHAMAYIMAnd so, even if you’re a plumber or a carpenter, and you’re busy all day long, you should know how important it is for you to keep this in mind. Every time you bang in a nail – of course you have to concentrate on doing a good job too; you might bang in a nail incorrectly and then you’re being paid for nothing, you’re aganav– but in addition to doing your best on the job, you have to add the thought, “I’m doing this because it’s the will of Hakodosh Boruch Hu. I have to work, I have to make a living, I have to get married, I have to support a wife, I have to support my children.” Of course if you have a rich father-in-law who’s willing to support you, then you could sit in akollelall your life; and even the kollel man has to be reminded to keep Hashem in his thoughts always. That’s exactly how we have to think and that is the motivation that is chiefly prized by Hashem.And so it doesn’t matter what you do, who you are. You could be a dentist, a shoemaker or an errand boy – whatever it is, that’s all incidental to what you really are. Because your chief profession is that of being part of theMamleches Kohanim. Now don’t think it’s just amashaland a piousdrasha. No, Hakodosh Boruch Hu expects us to take all the hints inVayikra, theTorasKohanim, and expand on it with your own mind in many other directions.That’s your business in life. And therefore as much as possible, in everything you do, you should keep in mind that you are serving Hashem. And everything you do, at home, at work, on the, street should be motivated by this awareness. Now it doesn’t mean that everything must be done that way or else you don’t do it. We are human beings and we try our best. We aspire to bekohanimas much as possible and therefore if we could add an additional intent to the things we do, and even say something to that effect, we train ourselves to be more and morekadoshand we fulfill our function in life as akohen, akadoshwho is set aside for Hashem.When you allow this thought to enter your mind and you gradually continue to practice it, so it begins to take a part in all of your actions, as a share in your thoughts. And after a while you’ll find that part of your intentions in whatever you do islisheim shamayim.You start by thinking and speaking aboutlisheim shamayimand about being from themamleches kohanim v’goy kadoshand it’s all not real, you’re a hypocrite. But that’s the best hypocrite in the world because after a while it begins to penetrate and it becomes a genuine intention that participates in all of your motivations.THE DELICIOUS FRUIT OF PARSHAS TZAVThe great ideal, the important attitude that we are theMamleches Kohanim, and that our lives, our behavior, and our thoughts, are to be patterned after thekohanimin the Mikdash, must be for us a seed that is planted in our minds, a seed that you must water and nurture all the days of your life. And the more thought that you put into thisavodah, the more this seed ofMamleches Kohanimwill grow in your mind into beautiful and delicious fruit. The more you water this ideal, by thinking about what we’re speaking about tonight, the more you will understand that everything that you do in your life, Hashem looks at it as if it is theavodas hakohanimserving in the Beis Hamikdash.And as the years pass by, the ideal of being from themamleches kohanimgrows upon you and it becomes a stronger and stronger part of your personality until finally, before you realize it, it occupies a very big part in all of your motivations, and you actually begin to live life as one of themamleches kohanim. And just like when thekohanimwere chosen by Hashem it is written: והיו לי הלויים – “To be Mine,” it meant to be especially Mine forever, so too the nation as a whole was chosen to be theMamleches Kohanimwith that same word. ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים – “And you shall be forMea Kingdom of Priests,” is the mark of eternal honor. “Wherever it says לי, “For Me,” it shall never cease in this world and in the World to Come” (Vayikra Rabbah 2:2). It’s a mark of distinction that we must live up to, to be always aware that all of our actions must be for the purpose of serving Hashem. And if we keep that in mind always, then we become thegoy kadosh, the nation set aside for Hashem in eternity. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Part I. Torah of KohanimEVERYONE IS JEALOUS OF RABBI MILLERIn Parshas Tzav we continue our encounter with the avodah of the kohanim, the ones privileged to stand in the service of Hashem in the Beis Hamikdash. And we find ourselves inundated with the especial attention given to kohanim. Laws upon laws for the descendants of Aharon that place them on a pedestal; rules meant to regulate the behavior of the aristocracy. Now, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable or jealous of me [The Rav was a kohen], but week after week, in Vayikra, Tzav, Shmini, and actually in most of Sefer Vayikra, we become more and more impressed with the great honor and privilege accorded to the kohanim.I know that most of us here have already accepted the maxim of democracy, equality for everyone, so you don’t want to think too much about it, but the truth is when the Bnei Levi were chosen to be the Kohanei Hashem, it was a great pride for them. The kohen walked with a swagger; he was on top of the world! It wasn’t just a matter of being called to officiate at a pidyon haben or to benefit from the terumos and other matnos kehunah. It was a great prerogative, a great privilege, to be the servant of Hashem in His house. And I have no doubt that the rest of the Am Yisroel were disappointed and jealous. The bechorim, who had lost this privilege, surely were jealous, but I’m sure that everyonelooked at the kohanim with envy.TRESPASSING ON HOLY GROUNDSTo be a kohen was an eternal privilege of closeness to Hashem. והיו לי הלויים – “And the Levites shall be Mine” (Bamidbar 3:12); and when Hashem says “Mine”, you have to know, He means “Mine forever.” The medrash says that. “Wherever it says לי, ‘Mine’, it’s for all time; in this world and in the World to Come” (Vayikra Rabbah 2:2). And therefore, to be chosen as kohanim by Hashem “To be Mine” was the greatest of honors; an honor for eternity, that most of the Am Yisroel could only pine for.And therefore, as we make our way through Sefer Vayikra, we understand that we are treading on holy ground. We are being taken on a tour of sorts through the Beis Hamikdash and the avodas hakorbanos, and we feel as if we don’t belong. We have stepped over the boundary into a world of kehunah, a world of kedushah, and we tiptoe through parshiyos Vayikra, Tzav and Shemini as if trespassing on forbidden grounds.And then, as we tiptoe through the Mikdash feeling out of place and alienated from all of these priestly laws, suddenly we bump our heads against something we weren’t expecting. And it’s a curious thing. Right in the middle of the laws of kohanim and their korbanos, we chance upon a possuk that veers from the topic, words that are directed at all of the Am Yisroel. כל חלב שור וכשב ועז לא תאכלו – “Any fat of oxen, sheep, or goats, you shall not eat”(Tzav 7:23). It’s a possukthat’s telling us about chullin, ordinary meat, eaten in our own homes.MISPLACED PESSUKIM?The Torah here, in a parshadedicated to the kohanim, is talking to Levi’im and Yisraelimas well; men, women and children; anyone of the Am Yisroel. And we are told that we are forbidden to eat the cheilev, a certain type of fat, from these animals. And that’s a question; what’s chullin, ordinary meat, doing here in Vayikra, the Toras Kohanim? Why are we discussing our home kitchens in Parshas Tzav?Now actually if we study the end of the possuk, we find that the Torah provides us with a clue: כי כל אכל חלב מן הבהמה אשר יקריב ממנה אשה להשם ונכרתה הנפש האוכלת מעמיה – “For anyone who eats the fat of an animal species from which one may bring a fire-offering to Hashem, the soul of the one that eats shall be cut off from its people” (Ibid. 7:23-25). So we see that the Torah adds a few words here: אשר יקריב ממנה, only the fats of animals that could be used as offerings are forbidden. A lamb, a calf, it couldbe brought on the mizbeiach, so its cheilev is ossur. But it’s forbidden even if it’s not a korban!Now, at first glance, this reasoning is a bit difficult to understand. Just because the kohen working in the Mikdash was once required to remove the fats from a calf and place them on the mizbeiach in service of Hashem, what does that have to do with how I prepare the steak in my kitchen today? It’s not a korban after all! You know that to remove the cheilev entails a laborious process called treibering. You can’t do it on your own. Someone has to be hired, someone who knows what he’s doing, and we pay good money for that. And for what? We’re not talking here about a korban, where the cheilev is offered up on the mizbeiach. We’re speaking of ordinary meat here, of chullin. Why can’t we eat the cheilev of ordinary meat? I don’t know if it bothers you, but I think it’s a good question.WHAT’S WRONG WITH EATING BLOOD?And in the next possuk we find a similar idea: וכל דם לא תאכלו בכל מושבותיכם לעוף ולבהמה כל נפש אשר תאכל כל דם ונכרתה הנפש ההיא מעמיה – “And all blood shall not be consumed by you, in any of your dwelling places, whether from fowl or from animals. Any person who consumes any blood, his soul shall be cut off from its people” (ibid. 26-27). In any of your dwelling places! Even outside of the Mikdash, wherever the Jew, a non-Kohen, eats his ordinary meat, he must make sure to remove the blood from the animal.So the blood of an ordinary beheimah is ossur for us. That costs us too! We’re spending a lot of money on kosher meat today and some of it is because of the melichah, the salting, because we can’t have blood in our meat. Why now, when being taught about the korbanos, are we being told that we can’t have dam in our meat?WHY ARE WE PLAYING “BEIS HAMIKDASH”?And the answer is not a secret. The Torah tells us; it states openly that the reason is because dam belongs on the mizbei’ach: כי נפש הבשר בדם היא ואני נתתיו לכם על המזבח לכפר על נפשותיכם כי הדם הוא בנפש יכפר – “For the life of a person is in the blood, and I have assigned it for you to be put on the mizbeiach to atone for your lives, for it is the blood that atones for one’s life” (ibid. 17:11). That’s why in the Beis Hamikdash the blood can’t be eaten, it’s sacred. It has to be thrown on the sides of the mizbeiach. That’s how the one who brings the korban gets his kapparah.Now, by a korban, I understand. Its blood can’t be eaten, it’s sacred. But we’re not eating korbanos! It’s our ordinary food, our chullin, and the blood is not li’chapeir! We’re not pouring the dam onto the mizbeiach to be a kapparah. And yet, it’s forbidden. And so instead of pouring it on the mizbeiach, we’re commanded על הארץ תשפכנו כמים – “Pour it onto the ground” (Devarim 12:16). And that’s because had this animal been a korban, its blood would have been poured onto the mizbeiach . So we see again that we approach our chullin food the same way the kohanimapproached their kodshim in the Beis Hamikdash. חקת עולם לדורותיכם בכל מושבותיכם כל חלב וכל דם לא תאכלו – “It’s an eternal decree for your generations in all your dwelling places; you may not consume any fat or any blood” (Vayikra 3:17). And that’s a question. Why am I playing “Beis Hamikdash” in my kitchen?A KOHEN HAS TO LOOK GOODAnd what’s even more remarkable is that it’s not only regarding laws of the korbanosthat we find this crossing of the boundaries. It permeates our daily lives as well. The Kohanim are commanded: אמר אל הכהנים…לא יקרחו קרחה בראשם ופאת זקנם לא יגלחו ובבשרם לא ישרטו שרטת – “They shouldn’t make a bald spot on their heads, and they shouldn’t shave the edges of their beard, and in their flesh they shall not cut a gash” (Vayikra 21:5). A kohen has to look like an aristocrat; like a prince. And Hashem tells us why: כי את אשי השם לחם אלוקיהם הם מקריבים והיו קודש- “Because the fire-offerings of Hashem, the food of their G-d, they offer, and so they must remain holy” (ibid. 21:6). They are servants of Hashem, and so they must look the part; their exterior appearance must be befitting of those who stand before Hashem in His service. The holy kohanimmust always appear to others as men of distinction.And yet, these priestly laws are repeated again, this time as a command for the whole nation. The possuk says: לא תקיפו פאת ראשכם ולא תשחית את פאת זקניך ושרט לנפש לא תתנו בבשרכם – “You shall not round off the edges of your scalp, and you shall not destroy the edge of your beard. And you shall not make a cut in your flesh for the dead” (ibid. 19:27-28). בנים אתם להשם אלוקיכם לא תתגודדו ולא תשימו קרחה בין עיניכם למת – “You are children to Hashem your G-d, do not make gashes and do not make bald spots on your heads” (Devarim 14:1).Here the Torah is repeating to the Am Yisroel the same commandment that was told to the kohanim. And the reason given is: כי עם קדוש אתה להשם אלוקיך ובך בחר השם להיות לו לעם סגולה מכל העמים אשר על פני האדמה – “For you are a holy people to Hashem, and Hashem has chosen you to be His treasured people from all of the peoples on the face of the earth” (ibid 14:2). So what was said first to the kohanim, as an admonition because of והיו קודש, so that “they should be holy,” that same thing is subsequently told to the Klal Yisroel with the identical reason, כי עם קדוש אתה להשם אלוקיך, because you are a holy nation set aside for the service of Hashem.SOME SECRETS ARE EASILY REVEALEDNow, I’m not capable of revealing the secrets of the Torah, but certain things are apparent even to our minds. Because it’s remarkable! The same commandments given to the kohen because of his prestigious status are duplicated almost word for word, for the Yisroel, for the most “simple” Jew. Each commandment! Korcha, baldness of the head. Sritah, cutting yourself. P’aszekanam lo yigaleichu, not to cut the corners of the beard. The Am Yisroel walks lock step with the kohanei Hashem!Now of course there are reasons why things are repeated – we learn details from the repetition, new halachos. But right now we’re talking about the pshuto shel mikra. And the pshuto shel mikra is telling us something here. The intention of Hashem is evident in these pesukim, and that is of an entire nation patterning their lives after the laws of the kohanim. And if we pay attention to the words of the Torah, we’ll see that this intention of Hashem began already at Mattan Torah.HASHEM’S TREASURE CHESTBefore the Torah was given, Hakodosh Boruch Hu made a declaration to the Am Yisroel. Now, even the people who know this possuk, usually understand it as a poetic expression; something beautiful and noble, but that’s about it. However it’s not merely poetic and so we should listen well to His words: “I’m going to do something now,” said Hashem, “that’s going to change the nature of the entire people. The whole Klal Yisroelwill become different now. If you will stand at Har Sinai and you say, ‘Na’aseh v’nishma; Yes, Hashem, we accept You forever and ever,’ then I’m going to make you into an exceptional type of people.” והייתם לי סגולה מכל העמים – “You’ll be for Me a special treasure from all the nations; the whole nation will be forever chosen as My prized possession” (Shemos 19:5).Now, Am Segulah, doesn’t merely mean “I’m going to give you semichah; I’m going to give you a rabbinical certificate to hang on the wall and you’ll be honored just by the title.” No; it’s much more than that. Segulahmeans that your nature is going to change. Your character will be entirely metamorphosed and you’ll become an entirely different type of people. At Har Sinai not only did we adopt certain attitudes and promise to remain faithful to them, but we became an entirely different people then we were before.THE JEWS ARE NOT A NATIONWhat that means is that our status in this world, our place in the history of the world was now changed. That’s what Hashem was letting us know. “From now on it’s going to be different. I’m going to raise you up and make out of you an entirely new type of people – an Am Segulah.” Not merely that we are a good nation; not merely that we are the best nation. We are no longer one of the nations of the world! We were chosen and elevated to a status that is far above the status of Mankind. That’s a tremendous concept! A Jew is more than human – no matter what you’re going to say in objection. That’s what the Torah is telling us.And what is our function as Hashem’s treasured nation? Here come the following words which I wish to speak about tonight, because they are really the answer to the questions we asked earlier: ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים – “You’re going to be to Me a Nation of Kohanim, וגוי קדוש – And a Holy People.” אלה הדברים אשר תדבר אל בני ישראל – Take these words and tell it to the Bnei Yisroel” (Shemos 19:6). “Make sure the people understand what I’m saying now very well,” Hashem said to Moshe Rabeinu.What we’re hearing now is that these words, that we were to become now a MamlechesKohanim, are of the utmost importance. Everything is important in the Torah, but these words are especially outstanding. Now, I don’t imagine myself capable of explaining them properly, but one aspect of these words we’ll talk about now.THE MOST REMARKABLE PROFESSIONFirst we’ll have to understand the word kohen. Like we said earlier, a kohen is one who is privileged to have been chosen for the most remarkable profession possible. And that profession is the service of Hashem. That’s who he is, a kohen. He might be let’s say a plumber as well, or maybe a shoemaker. But that’s all tafel, it’s tangential to his primary function in this world which is the service of Hashem. A kohen knows that his life is dedicated to Hashem. He was born a kohen, he lives his life a kohen, and he will take his last breath as a kohen. All the days of his life are a lifelong career standing ready to serve Hakodosh Boruch Hu.And therefore when Hashem declared that He had chosen us to be His Mamleches Kohanim, His “Kingdom of Priests,” He was charging us with the responsibility of kohanim. What it means is “a kingdom consistingof priests” – a nation in which every individual, man woman and child, is a kohen living a life of holiness in the service of Hashem.And so, while we imagined that all of these laws for the Am Yisroel don’t belong here in Vayikra, what we’re learning now is that they do belong! The kohanim were given these laws because of their special status – and then, to emphasize our status as Kohanei Hashem,Hakodosh Boruch Hu said to all of us as well, “You too, all of you, are my Mamleches Kohanim, and are to act in the same manner as my kohanim.”DON’T WAIT FOR BAMIDBARAnd so we come back to Sefer Vayikra, and we see the laws of the kohanim in a different light altogether. Because we understand that whatever is said about kohanim is a hint for what Hakodosh Boruch Hu wants usto be. Now maybe you never heard this before, but you should take it seriously – it’s not just talk. ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים means that whatever you’re going to hear about the kohanimin Sefer Vayikra – the whole Vayikra is called Toras Kohanimbecause it deal with the laws of kohanim – don’t think that it’s only for kohanim. Don’t sit back during kriyas hatorah and wait for Bamidbar and Devarim, for the parts that you think are more suited to you. No, no; Vayikra is for you! It’s there to be utilized as a lesson, as model for every person in the Am Yisroel. When Hashem said, “You’ll be a mamleches kohanim,” it means, “I’m telling you how kohanimhave to behave, what duties they have and what privileges they have, and you should know that I intend that you should study them and emulate these principles.Now, I want that to sink in because these words are not a mashal, not mere words. You’re hearing here a fundamental truth of the Torah and if you didn’t know it before, now is the time. And that is the great lesson of Mamleches Kohanim – that we are the Kohanei Hashem of this world. The rest of the world, all the nations of the world, make their way through the days of life, fulfilling their purpose of being the משפחות האדמה, nations whose purpose is this world. And we appreciate that; we don’t hold it against them. We need the Italians and the Irishmen. We need the construction workers and garbage men; we want them to be busy with the adamah.Yet, while the umos haolam are engaged in living in this world, solely for this world, we the Kohanei Hashem, spend our days living in this world – we have plumbers and truck drivers too – but we do it all while standing in the service of Hakodosh Boruch Hu as if we were kohanim standing in the Beis Hamikdash.IT’S NOT POETRYAnd in order that it should be clear that the expression “a kingdom of priests” is not merely a poetic declaration but an actual status, Hakodosh Boruch Hu commanded the Am Yisroel in the same priestly laws as the kohanim. Just like the kohanimare commanded to zealously guard their dignity, so too are we commanded not to abuse our bodies with gashes; we are forbidden from making bald spots on our heads and from cutting the corners of our beards. And all this because we are acting out in our own lives, in our own homes, the same function that the kohanim act out in the Beis Hamikdash. The kohanimhave one function and that is to serve Hashem. And we the Mamleches Kohanim have that same exact function.And because we are kohanimtoo, Hakodosh Boruch Hu tells us: “If this animal would have been offered up to Hashem, the cheilev would have to be removed and brought up on the fire, and the dam sprinkled on the sides of the mizbeiach, before partaking of the meat. And so, even when it’s chullin, ordinary meat that you’re eating you must also remove the cheilev and the dam.” Even though your own personal shechitah is not an avodah of a korban – you’re merely standing in the kitchen preparing supper for your family – Hashem tells you that you are to treat it like an avodah, because the Mamleches Kohanim is always standing before Hashem in His service.And therefore, just like the kohenwho was working alongside the mizbeiach, we can’t eat the cheilev of our beheimos. And the blood that would have been sprinkled on the mizbeiach had this animal been a korban, we spill it out to the ground. The preparation of our food, reminds us that we don’t have the same function as the mishpachos ha’adamah! Our shechita is not merely shechitas chullin – it’s an echo of the shechitas kodshimthat took place in the Beis Hamikdash.NO ROMPING ON TABLESAnd that’s why the Am Yisroel always understood that when you sit around the Jewish table it’s like sitting around the mizbeiach. זה השולחן אשר לפני השם. The Jewish table is called a mizbeiach (Chagigah 27a). It sounds like a queer thing to say, but it’s not just words. In the Jewish home if the children were playing in the house, romping around, and a boy sat on the table for a moment, the mother would shoo him away; “Off the table! You can’t sit on a mizbeiach!” That’s how it used to be. A man told me that; he said his mother used to drive him off the table. “A Jewish table is holy,” she told him.The table in a frum home is holy, it’s a mizbeiach. Not only because you eat kosher food, and feed aniyim at your table. It’s not only because you say some divrei Torah at the seudah.Ofcourse we do that too, all that is important; but understanding that your table in the kitchen is a mizbeiach is much more than that. It’s a reminder that as much as possible, all of what you do in the home is to be done in the service of Hashem. So when you sit at the table, you’re thinking of ways, opportunities to speak about Hashem; to praise Hashem, to praise frum Jews, to praise the Torah, to praise the Torah communities. Not just that you make a token donation to the cause by saying Boruch atah Hashem. That too is good but a nation of kohanim does much more than that. As much as possible you’re thinking about Hashem while you’re eating, and you’re serving Hashem like a kohen thinking about Hashem while serving at the mizbeiach.Part II. Every Jew a KohenTHE KIYOR AT THE SIDE OF YOUR BEDAnd so the person who recognizes his place in this world understands that he is really living his entire live in emulation of the kohanim. As much as possible, from morning till night, you keep in mind that you’re a kohen making your way through life as a servant of Hashem. And that’s why in the morning as soon as you get up you pour water over your hands. What’s the point, what’s so important about neggel vasser? Listen to this carefully. The Rashba (Teshuvos HaRashba 1:191) says that negel vasser is for the purpose of showing that we are Kohanei Hashem. That’s why when you wash your hands in the morning, you use a kli, a vessel, just like the kohanimused in the Mikdash when they prepared themselves for the avodah. ככהן המקדש ידיו מן הכיור קודם עבודתו – “You are like a kohen who purifies his hands from the kiyor before his service.” Those are the words of the Rashba.By the kohanim it says, ורחצו ידיהם ורגליהם בגשתם לשרת. The kohanim have to wash their hands as a preparation for tremendous opportunity to work in the Mikdash. But what does that have to do with us? Because we are emulating the kohanim. We are serving Hashem; that’s our business in life. You get up in the morning and what do you do? You’re a kohen washing your hands getting ready for avodas Hashem. And so the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning, before anything else, you prepare for the day with the most important information that you need. You remind yourself that you’re a kohen, that you’re a member of the Mamleches Kohanim. When you wake up in the morning, what are you getting up for? To go to work? To go to school? To be an accountant? No, you’re getting up in order to serve Hashem all day long.And therefore, as you wash your hands, don’t just pour the water without thinking. What a waste! Think, better yet say, “I am doing this now because I am a kohen. Hashem has appointed me to be part of His ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש.” Our entire lives are dedicated to serving Hashem. Whether you’re in your office working, in the kitchen cooking, or cleaning diapers in the laundry room, you’re serving Hashem. Besides for your davening and learning, you should know that whatever else you do is all part of serving Hakodosh Boruch Hu. You’re an eved ne’eman and you’re a kohen, and therefore the washing of the hands – the preparation for a day of serving Hashem is a very important symbol. And it should be utilized by you to make yourself aware of your status. It’s a shame to waste that glorious opportunity that you have every morning. And most people are missing it altogether. That first act of the day, if done with thought, sets the tone for the rest of the day – that everything you will do, you’ll be doing as a servant of Hashem. THE HILL ON YOUR HEADAnd therefore we can carry the comparison still further. We read a few weeks ago about the bigdei kehuna. And the one garment that is especially described as being worn “for honor and for beauty” was the migba’as, the headgear, of the Kohen. ומגבעות תעשה להם לכבוד ולתפארת – “And the headgear you shall make for them, for honor and for beauty” (Shemos 28:40). You know that the word migba’as, headgear, is related to the word giv’ah, a hill, an elevation. And that’s because the Kohen appears taller because of his migba’as. It added to his height, to denote his superiority as a servant of Hashem. He wore this crown of “honor and beauty” to demonstrate to everyone the importance of his service and his pride in being able to serve Hakodosh Boruch Hu.You know, once upon a time the whole Klal Yisroel didn’t wear hats. But everyone knew that the kohen wore a mitznefes. They knew that, and it meant something to them; there was a tinge of kosher jealousy there. And so the Am Yisroel said, “If the kohanim wear a mitznefeswhy shouldn’t we?!” And so little by little the mamleches kohanim, the whole Am Yisroel, began to cover up their heads because they understood that as much as we can we emulate the kohanim.THE REAL PSHAT IN “SHIVISI”And so when you cover your head today; when you put on your hat, your yarmulke, what you’re doing is walking in the footsteps of the Jews of ancient times who knew that they were kohanim too. And if you wear a sheitel or tichel you can add that thought as well. As often as you can you should be reminding yourself – if nobody is listening say it with your mouth – that you’re identifying with the Mamleches Kohanim. Even though you are not a kohenserving Hashem at the mizbeiach, but you are serving Hashem no less in your home, in your kitchen, at your place of work, or on the street outside. You are a part of the Mamleches Kohanim, and that means that wherever you are, and whatever you’re doing, you’re standing in front of Hashem in His service. That’s the real pshat in שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד. Don’t tell me that you’re picturing the letters of Hashem’s name all the time. You don’t need the letters – you are actually standing before Him.When we study the fact that kohanim wear special garments, we understand that every Jew is expected to look different in his garments. Now I’m not saying right now what you have to wear. If you’re from a certain neighborhood or from a certain group that wears let’s say long cloaks or you wear black hats very good, very good. Black hats by the way is a very good thing; if you’re able to emulate that practice in order to identify with the Torah community, it’s a greatness. But that’s not my subject right now. Because whatever it is, the point is that a decent Jew must be distinctive in the way he dresses; he has to be dignified in his dress. A Yisroelcannot wear jeans for instance. Like it says by the bigdei kehuna, l’chavod u’li’siferes, he has to dress conventionally, in an honorable way. If he’ll wear jeans let’s say, or patched or torn clothing for the purpose of looking like a bum so he’s ignoring the model of the mamleches kohanim.A PROFESSOR ACCOSTS RAV MILLERSo you’ll say what’s the sin? And I’ll tell you – it’s the lack of understanding of our status in this world! I met an Orthodox Jew in the street one day. I was walking in the street and a man accosted me – I was frightened. He looked like a bum! He was wearing a cap, a queer kind of cap, and queer clothing. And then I recognized him as an Orthodox college professor. I can’t blame him really; he’s among bums all day long so he has to camouflage himself so they should think he’s one of them. But that’s not how Hashem wants us to be! He wants us to look different because we are the mamleches kohanim v’goy kadosh – we’re a holy people like the kohanim.Kohanim you know are called a holy group of people. וקדשתו – “And you should make him kadosh” (Vayikra 21:8). It’s a commandment that we have to give a certain deference to a kohen. We recognize that he is holy because he is a servant of Hashem and we therefore accord him a special respect. So you’re sitting at a seudah, and there’s a waiter there. So he’s can’t just serve one, two, three, whatever the seating order is. No, he knows the din that כהן נוטל חלק בראש – “The kohen is served first.” That’s a din in the gemara, the kohen comes first. The kohen gets the first aliyah at kriyas hatorah, that you know already. But not only when it comes to an aliyah; even when it comes to eating, he’s also first.In every matter, we give respect to the one who has been chosen as an eved Hashem. V’kidashto, we treat him with respect because he’s holy to Hashem. Because of his status, his function in this world as the servant of Hashem we accord him privileges and distinctions of honor. כי את לחם אלוקיך הוא מקריב – He’s serving Hashem, and that’s why v’kidashto, that’s why you honor him above all others.YOUR HOLY SPOUSEAnd now, when we think about these words we hear an echo of the words קדושים תהיו – “And you, the Am Yisroel, should be kadosh” (ibid. 19:2). Not only is a kohen a kadosh, but every frum Jew is kadosh. What does the word kadosh mean? It means set aside, set apart for Hashem, something that’s connected to Hashem.Every Jew is kadosh; it says that openly in the Torah that we’re a mamleches kohanim v’goy kadosh. And so, when you deal with your fellow Jew, you have to watch out what you say. Of course, when you deal with a goy you have to watch what you say as well, but it’s not the same at all. Your wife is kadosh, your husband is kadosh. You cannot just hurl words against each other recklessly. Be careful what you say! You have to know who you’re talking to. Would you talk like that to a kohen in the Beis Hamikdash?! You have to respect a kohen, and you have to respect the Am Kadosh. And just like a kohen is treated with an especial dignity because he is holy to Hashem, that same respect and honor should be given to our fellow Jews.ENCOUNTER WITH GREATNESSSo you have to practice up on these truths. You see a fellow Jew, and you say under your breath, “There goes a holy person, one of the goy kadosh.” That’s how to think when you pass a Jew in the street. It’s an encounter with greatness, with kedusha, and it’s important to get that into your head. And it will only happen if you train yourself to think these thoughts; “That man is holy; he’s from the Mamleches Kohanim.”But not only do we have to consider our fellow Jew a kadosh, but we have to consider ourselves as kedoshim. Just like a kohen has to be careful with his kedusha, you’re always reminding yourself, “I’m part of the goy kadosh of Hashem; I’m set aside for avodas Hashem.”And so, since you’re always standing in front of Hashem, you must begin to train yourself to do as much as you can l’sheimshamayim. Little by little you train yourself to think about Hashem in whatever you are doing. And so, when you serve supper to your husband, to your family, why not? You’re a good frum wife, a loyal woman; you’ll say, “Certainly I serve my husband supper. What else should I do? He’s my husband. Any loyal wife would do this.” But now we’re seeing that that is not enough. Your job in this world is to be more than a wife who is loyal to her husband, and to her family. Because while you are doing all of these “mundane” activities, you are doing them with the intention that you are from the mamleches kohanim and that you are serving Hashem.FLIPPING THE PANCAKESAnd that’s what Hakodosh Boruch Hu wants from you. That you should become more and more kadosh; more and more set aside for Him in your thoughts. And that means that as much as you can you try to do things lisheim shamayim, which means that you’re aware that you’re serving Hashem. So you stand at your stove just like a kohen stands at the mizbeiach, putting onto the fire things to burn up to Hashem. And he’s מהפך בצינורא, he’s turning over the fats and pieces of the korbanfor Hashem. And you’re standing there at your mizbeiach, your stove, turning over the pancakes, and you’re serving Hashem no less than a kohen. You’re thinking these thoughts; that you’re serving Hashem right now in your kitchen like the kohen serves Hashem in the Mikdash and the status of your home is elevated to a place of the service of Hashem.Now people will say, “Certainly I’m an oived Hashem, certainly. But that’s only part of my life; I have to do other things too. I have a job, I have a family.” And the answer is, no. ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים tells you that whatever you are doing in life, you’re still a kohen Hashem.Look, a kohen can also get a job; he also has a family. But he’s still a kohen! So you have to go to your office, to your store, whatever it is, to make a living. But you’re still a kohen Hashem. You have to take care of your children, feed them, bathe them. But that doesn’t in any way affect your status. You’re part of the Mamleches Kohanim and you must keep that in mind always. Hashem took you out of Mitzrayim to be His servant and nothing can change that fundamental truth of your purpose in this world. A Yisroelcan never change his function in life.BANGING NAILS L’SHEIM SHAMAYIMAnd so, even if you’re a plumber or a carpenter, and you’re busy all day long, you should know how important it is for you to keep this in mind. Every time you bang in a nail – of course you have to concentrate on doing a good job too; you might bang in a nail incorrectly and then you’re being paid for nothing, you’re a ganav – but in addition to doing your best on the job, you have to add the thought, “I’m doing this because it’s the will of Hakodosh Boruch Hu. I have to work, I have to make a living, I have to get married, I have to support a wife, I have to support my children.” Of course if you have a rich father-in-law who’s willing to support you, then you could sit in a kollel all your life; and even the kollel man has to be reminded to keep Hashem in his thoughts always. That’s exactly how we have to think and that is the motivation that is chiefly prized by Hashem.And so it doesn’t matter what you do, who you are. You could be a dentist, a shoemaker or an errand boy – whatever it is, that’s all incidental to what you really are. Because your chief profession is that of being part of the Mamleches Kohanim. Now don’t think it’s just a mashal and a pious drasha. No, Hakodosh Boruch Hu expects us to take all the hints in Vayikra, the TorasKohanim, and expand on it with your own mind in many other directions.That’s your business in life. And therefore as much as possible, in everything you do, you should keep in mind that you are serving Hashem. And everything you do, at home, at work, on the, street should be motivated by this awareness. Now it doesn’t mean that everything must be done that way or else you don’t do it. We are human beings and we try our best. We aspire to be kohanim as much as possible and therefore if we could add an additional intent to the things we do, and even say something to that effect, we train ourselves to be more and more kadosh and we fulfill our function in life as a kohen, a kadosh who is set aside for Hashem.When you allow this thought to enter your mind and you gradually continue to practice it, so it begins to take a part in all of your actions, as a share in your thoughts. And after a while you’ll find that part of your intentions in whatever you do is lisheim shamayim. You start by thinking and speaking about lisheim shamayim and about being from the mamleches kohanim v’goy kadosh and it’s all not real, you’re a hypocrite. But that’s the best hypocrite in the world because after a while it begins to penetrate and it becomes a genuine intention that participates in all of your motivations.THE DELICIOUS FRUIT OF PARSHAS TZAVThe great ideal, the important attitude that we are the Mamleches Kohanim, and that our lives, our behavior, and our thoughts, are to be patterned after the kohanim in the Mikdash, must be for us a seed that is planted in our minds, a seed that you must water and nurture all the days of your life. And the more thought that you put into this avodah, the more this seed of Mamleches Kohanim will grow in your mind into beautiful and delicious fruit. The more you water this ideal, by thinking about what we’re speaking about tonight, the more you will understand that everything that you do in your life, Hashem looks at it as if it is the avodas hakohanim serving in the Beis Hamikdash.And as the years pass by, the ideal of being from the mamleches kohanim grows upon you and it becomes a stronger and stronger part of your personality until finally, before you realize it, it occupies a very big part in all of your motivations, and you actually begin to live life as one of the mamleches kohanim. And just like when the kohanim were chosen by Hashem it is written: והיו לי הלויים – “To be Mine,” it meant to be especially Mine forever, so too the nation as a whole was chosen to be the Mamleches Kohanim with that same word. ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים – “And you shall be for Me a Kingdom of Priests,” is the mark of eternal honor. “Wherever it says לי, “For Me,” it shall never cease in this world and in the World to Come” (Vayikra Rabbah 2:2). It’s a mark of distinction that we must live up to, to be always aware that all of our actions must be for the purpose of serving Hashem. And if we keep that in mind always, then we become the goy kadosh, the nation set aside for Hashem in eternity. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hashem’s Bitter MedicineIT’S TIME TO GO HOME!InParshas Va’eirathe seeds of our redemption fromMitzrayimfinally begin to take root and sprout. The time has come for the tenmakkos, the great retribution upon Pharaoh and his slavemaster people, and for theAm Yisroelto finally make their exit from the long and arduous servitude in the ארץ לא להם, the land not their own. Thegeulahof theAm Yisroel,the fulfillment of ואחרי כן יצאו ברכוש גדול, had finally arrived.And on what basis was theAm Yisroelgoing to be taken out ofMitzrayimnow? That we all know; it was thebris bein hab’sarim,the famous covenant that Hashem had made with Avraham centuries earlier. You remember when Avraham asked Hakodosh Boruch Hu: במה אדע כי אירשנה – “How do I know that the land will be mine”? (Bereishis 15:8). “Give me some guarantee,” begged Avraham, “a guarantee that I’m going to receive the land; that my progeny will one day inherit this land.” Avraham was worried; “Who knows? Maybe our merit won’t be sufficient. Maybe someday You’ll be unpleased with us. I want an unbreakable covenant with You!” So Hakadosh Baruch Hu told him then, “Take three calves, three goats and three rams, so that you and I can enter into a covenant.” And what did Avraham do? He took these animals and cut them in half and set the parts opposite each other.That was the practice in those days. It says that in Yirmiyahu (34:19). When you wanted to enter a covenant, when you wanted to commit yourself to a course of action with an unbreakable promise, you would divide an animal and pass between its pieces as a sign of your commitment to uphold the deal.HAKODOSH BORUCH HU SEALS THE DEALSo what happened? Hakadosh Baruch Hu sent down His Presence, His glory, in the form of a fiery furnace to “seal the deal.” Suddenly a greatdread and a darkness fell upon the scene. And Avraham witnessed how this fiery furnace – it was the Presence of Hashem – marched between the offerings. והנה תנור עשן ולפיד אש אשר עבר בין הגזרים האלה – “And behold, a smoking furnace and a torch of fire passed through the pieces” (ibid. 15:17).That was thebris bein hab’sarim, when Hakodosh Boruch Hu came down and entered into a covenant with Avraham. ביום ההוא כרת השם את אברהם ברית – “On that day Hashem made a covenant with Avraham” (ibid. 15:18). It’s something unequaled in the history of our people, even among the greatest prophets, that such a covenant was made. That Hakodosh Boruch Hu should come down and “shake hands” to close the deal?! It’s unheard of in all of history.And what did Hakodosh Boruch Hu tell Avraham at that moment? ידע תדע כי גר יהיה זרעך בארץ לא להם – “Know with certainty that your offspring will be sojourners in a land not their own, ועבדום וענו אותם… ואחרי כן יצאו ברכוש גדול- “And they will enslave them, and oppress them… and afterwards they shall leave with great possessions… to your descendants I have given this land” (ibid. 15:13-18). So it was an imperishable promise that Hakadosh Baruch Hu had made, that He would stand by His people and that He would eventually take them out ofMitzrayimand bring them to the land that He had promised to them.THE TIME FINALLY COMESAnd now, in the beginning of ourparsha, Hakodosh Boruch Hu is telling Moshe to let His people know that the time has come. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is invoking that great promise He had made centuries before. וגם הקימותי את בריתי איתם לתת להם את ארץ כנען – “I am upholding My covenant that I made for them to give them Eretz Canaan” (Va’eira 6:4). “The time has come for Me to fulfill My promise to the Bnei Yisroel,” says Hashem, והבאתי אתכם אל הארץ אשר נשאתי את ידי לתת אותה – “And I will bring you to the land which I raised up My hand to give it to you” (ibid. 6:8).But it’s very important that we should listen to the next verse, thepossukafter Hashem invokes the great promise:וגם הקימותי את בריתי – “And not only am I upholding the covenant I made with Avraham,” but also – now listen to these words: וגם אני שמעתי את נאקת בני ישראל אשר מצרים מעבידים אותם – and I also heard the outcry of the Bnei Yisroel, ואזכור את בריתי – “And therefore, I am now reminded of My promise to them” (ibid. 6:5). What do we see here? That despite the covenant, despite the oath that had to be fulfilled – it’s the word of Hashem after all so there’s no way that He would fail to fulfill it –despite all that, Hakodosh Boruch Huwaiteduntil he heard their outcry.THE GREAT OUTCRYAnd not just one outcry; they cried out for a long time. It’s repeated again and again: “I have heard their crying out” (ibid. 3:7), “Their crying out has come before Me” (ibid. 3:9), “I have heard the groaning outcry ofBnei Yisroel.” And it was only when He heard enough outcries from them, וגם שמעתי את נאקת בני ישראל, it was only then that finally Hakodosh Boruch Hu decided to fulfill His covenant with them.And that’s something we say every day in thesiddurועונה לעמו ישראל בעת שועםאליו – “Hashemanswers His people Yisroel, at the time that they cry out to Him.” It doesn’t say merely that He hastens to their succor; thatHe is at hand to help them. It doesn’t say that. It saysv’oneh, “He is ready to answer them.” When?B’eis shav’ameilav, at the time that they cry out.Shav’ammeans “a great outcry.” ואת שועתם ישמע – “He hears their outcries,” ויושיעם – “AndthenHe rescues them” (Tehillim 145:19). So we see that it’s not sufficient merely to mumble a little prayer. And even to cry out once or twice is not enough. It’s important to make a big outcry to Hashem, and to do it again and again.DID WE MISS THE FINE PRINT?And actually that’s a very big question. Because whydidHashem need our outcry? He had already raised His hand and swore that He would take us out fromMitzrayim! So why is the crying out to Him for help under the heavy weight of oppression so important? And even more remarkable, the words of thepossukimply that our redemption wasdependenton our crying out: ועתה הנה צעקת בני ישראל באה אלי…ועתה לכה ואשלחך אל פרעה והוצא את עמי בני ישראל ממצרים – “The outcry ofBneiYisroelhas come to Me…AndnowI will send you to Pharaoh and take out My nation fromMitzrayim” (ibid. 3:9-10). Even the great covenant of thebris bein hab’sarim,the inviolate word of Hashem wasdependenton theAm Yisroel’sentreaties, on their crying out to Hashem. And that’s very strange because that wasn’t part of thebris bein hab’sarim;“crying out” wasn’t part of the deal that we “signed!”But first, there’s a fundamental question we have to ask about the entire subject oftefillah, of praying for something. We introduce many of our prayers with the wordsyehi ratzon– “May it be Your will, Hashem…” For instance, suppose somebody is in the midst ofshemonah esreiand he remembers there’s somebody ill,chalilah, in the family. Or it’s a person he knows and he wants to pray for him. So he adds these words:יהי רצון מלפניךהשם אלוקינו ואלוקי אבותינו שתשלח מהרה רפואה שלימה מן השמים רפואת הנפש ורפואת הגוף – “It should be Your will Hashem, our G-d and the G-d of our fathers, that You should send speedily a complete recovery from heaven, a recovery of the soul and recovery of the body,” that means mentally and physically. And we mention the person, his name, so that he should be healed among all the othercholeiYisroel. Now, we are sayingyehi ratzon, it should be Your will. That’s how we introduce thetefillah.ILLNESS IS ALSO CHESSED HASHEMNow we have to know that whatever “happens” to a person is Hashem’s will. Nobody is sick because of accident. It’s always Hashem’s will. Of course, sometimes a man can induce the illness by his own carelessness, but nevertheless it’s Hashem’s will. That’s his punishment for being negligent with his care, with his health, or his safety. If a man is careless, he’s being punishedby Hashem. No matter what, it’s Hashem’s will that decreed that this man should be ill.And when Hakadosh Baruch Hu makes a decree like that, we have a principle, a fundamental principle calledkol orchos Hashem chesed v’emes –all the ways of Hashem are kindliness and truth (Tehillim 25:10).צדיק השם בכל דרכיו – “Hashem is righteous in all His ways,” וחסיד בכל מעשיו –”And He is kindly in all His acts.” (Ibid. 145:17) Now, when you come in here you have to divest yourself of outside attitudes. Because here we want to studyTorah attitudes; and the truth of the matter is thatHakadosh Baruch Hu does everything for kindly purposes. Everything! And if it was His will that this man should be ill, then it must be for this man’s benefit. What the most important benefit is, we’ll study soon, but it’s out of the question that it shouldn’t be a kindliness. Itcertainlyis for the person’s benefit.“HASHEM, CAN I GET A SECOND OPINION?”So here it was Hakadosh Baruch Hu’sratzonto give this man the benefit of becoming sick. So the question arises, where do we get the audacity to ask Hashem to change His will? Suppose a man goes to a physician and the physician writes a prescription for some medication, let’s say it’s a foul tasting medication. Would the man say to the physician, יהי רצון מלפניך – “It should be your willnotto give me this prescription. I want to get along without the prescription.”? Only ameshugenehwould say such a thing! The doctor studied for years and years, his profession is medicine, his knowledge and experience is medicine. He’s the expert here. And you’re just an obstinate fellow, maybe ignorant too. Either the expense is too much for you, or maybe you don’t like the taste of the medicine. So you don’t want to bother with it. It’s ameshugasto even ask such a thing!And here is Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the great Healer, and He’s prescribing for a man certain pills – whether the pills are troubles, or headaches, or pains, or illness – big and small. Whatever it is, it’s certainlypills. There’s no question that Hashem is benefitting the man by giving him these troubles, these misfortunes, pains or illnesses. So how can a man say to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, “I beg of you,yehi ratzon, that You should change the prescription, or not give me the prescription at all?” That’s a big question that needs to be answered. And actually that’s what all ourbakashosseem to be – an attempt to change the will of Hashem.WHY ALL THE TURBULENCE?And another question – just as important and maybe even more perplexing: What’s Hashem’s purpose in causing any disturbance, either in a man’s health or in his family life or in his business? It’s a question we want to ask of Him: “Why do You send anything to ruffle the tranquility of our lives?” After all, like we just said, Hashem’s ways are perfect, and He is kindly in all of His deeds. That’s a truism. So why is it that we see sometimes that Hashem does things that seem to be contradictory to these principles of kindliness?Actually it’s a question that all thinking men ask one time or another. Because chalilahsomething happens; sometimes it happens. Here’s a man who’s successful, and all of a sudden a freak misfortune happens to him and unfortunately he’s in the hospital. It’s not an accident, it’s Hashem! So he’s thinking, “Why did this happen to me? Before everything was going smoothly with me;boruch HashemI was a good frum Jew more or less. Why did Hashem do this?”THE GREATEST CHESED!And the answer is as follows: There is a great kindliness that’s most paramount, more important than all thechassodimin the world – more important thanparnasah, more important thanshalom bayis, and good health. And that’s the kindliness calledyiras Hashem.Yiras Hashem– which means to be Aware of Hashem, that’s the most important thing in your life. Now, this might sound queer to the ears of those who live with materialism, but it’s a fundamental principle that we must get into our heads.We are here to gain Awareness of Hashem.Now, if that’s the purpose, then what a tragedy it is when people let their lives go by and fail to utilize the opportunities to recognize Hashem. You forgot about Him?! To forget Hashem is the worst ruinationin life! To live without awareness is not a life worth living!So Hashem sees that you’re wasting your life – of course you’re afrumperson – you’re doingmitzvos,you’re ultra-ultra Orthodox.But that’s not enough for Hashem. He doesn’t want “Orthodox;” He wants to squeezegreatnessout of you! He wants to save you so that your life shouldn’t be wasted. Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants to give you the gift of being Aware of Him.HASHEM: A ONE DAY HEADACHE FOR CHAIMSo what does Hashem do? He orders a prescription; one headache. Prescribed: Chaim ben Dovid,one headache, for one day. It’s a pill. And so one morningyou wake up with a headache. And what’s the purpose of that prescription?The purpose of the headache is so that you should call out to Him and achieve the perfection of even a little more awareness of Hashem.And when you do that, you’re turning your migraine into diamonds!All the events in a man’s life are being manipulated by Hakadosh Boruch Hu; He puts disturbances in your life so you’ll call out to Him. And that is the chief purpose of every mishap in your life; to cause you to cry out for aid from Hashem and to thereby become more aware of Him. The outcry that comes from desperation, from unrequited needs and from anguished hopes for the future, causes Awareness of Hashem’s Presence, and it is that Awareness that is the true achievement, the chief purpose of Man’s existence in this life.“BETTER ANGER THAN LAUGHTER”And now we have an answer to the age old question of why “bad” things happen to good people: Because Awareness of Hashem is the greatestchesedthat Hashem can give man, and most often it is thetzaros,and the crying out to Hashem it encourages, that brings this Awareness. When you’re subject to adversity, that’s the great opportunity to bemakirHakodosh Boruch Hu, to recognize Hashem. When a man finds himself subject to mishaps and misfortunes – he needs things, so it’s much easier for him to raise his eyes to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and ask for it; and that is the great gift of Awareness of Hashem.And therefore, טוב כעס משחוק – Better anger than laughter” (Koheles 7:3). Now we know that’s not true. Anger is no good; it’s a very big mistake to get angry. But there isoneanger that is good – and that’s Hashem’s anger. טוב כעס שכועס הקדוש ברוך הוא על הצדיקים – That’s good. When Hashem gets angry at you, that’stov, that’s good for you. Don’t ask for it though. You ask for good times. הרחב פיך ואמלאהו, ask Him for good times and appreciate what He’s giving you. But still, “when Hashem shows his anger to thetzadikim, that’s better than the smiling Hashem does on thereshaim.” (Shabbos 30b) If there ever happened that atzadik,chalilahhad a setback, a misfortune, so you must know, and he must know, that it’s a stroke of good fortune. Now I know that it’s very hard to accept, but we have to learn that and understand that it’s achesed gadolwhen that happens to him.Tov, it’s better, it’s a greaterhatzlachathan had Hashem smiled.ברוע פנים ייטב לב, When the face is sad then the heart becomes better (ibid.). Now it doesn’t mean you should be sad and sour faced. On the contrary – if you’re sad faced it shows that you don’t appreciate what Hashem is doing for you. You don’t appreciate that things aretov. But sometimes a man against his will is sad because some misfortune has happened to him, so he should know however that ייטב לב, hisneshamais improving.DON’T TAKE THE WRONG MEDICINESo when Hashem sends you a headache, you have to know that it was for a great purpose. And if you take an aspirin, and after one day the headache goes away,and you never cried out to Hashem, so you wasted the prescription. You’ve wasted an opportunity! The purpose was for you to become Aware of Hashem, and you wasted the glorious opportunity.And so when we ask Hashem “Yehiratzon, let it be Your will that I be healed,” we are not telling Hakadosh Baruch Hu tochange His will.Yehi ratzonmeans this: “Hashem, I know that what You want from me is that I should become more Aware of You. And that’s what I’m doing now; I’m calling out to you. Let it be Your will that I can get better now – or mytzaarshould be removed, whatever it is you’re asking for –becauseI’m calling out to You. I’m becoming more aware of You. Whatever trouble You gave me, can go away now because I’ve achieved the purpose.”WHEN HASHEM DOESN’T ANSWERNow the truth is that sometimes you cry out to Hashem and He doesn’t answer. A man called me on the telephone and he tells me: He’s crying out and crying out, and there’s no answer. He wants to know what he’s supposed to think.He’s supposed to think thatHakadosh Boruch Huwants him to cry out even more. And suppose he cries out even more – let’s say a man is on his deathbed, he’s an old man, 119 years old, he can’t expect to live much more. But still he cries out on his deathbed. Did he waste his time? No! He achieved maybe in his last minutes more than he did in his whole life.119 YEARS IS NOT ENOUGH?!An old man is crying out on his deathbed, he says “Oh, Hashem, heal me!” “Oh it’s silly,” you’ll say. The bystanders think it’s ridiculous. “You want to be healed?! How long do you want to hang around here?! The children want to take over the business already, they want the “old man” out of the way already. 119 years is not enough?! No, for him it’s not enough. When you’re on your deathbed it’s never enough. He wants to live a thousand years. Why shouldn’t he? He has a great grandfather who lived almost a thousand years. Mesushelach lived almost a thousand years so why can’t he?So he’s crying out to Hashem. Why not? He has the right to cry out. And when he finally takes his last breath don’t think he didn’t accomplish with the crying out. He accomplished plenty.The crying out is the purpose.That’s the biggest achievement there is. So nobody is ever frustrated in hisdavenenwhen he’s not answered – because he has gained the most important thing, more Awareness of Hashem.DISCOVERING WINEMAKINGIt’s like a man who has a very good vineyard. He has blue-blooded grapes, good quality grapes “with ayichus, with a pedigree.” So when he takes his grapes to the wine press and he presses out the wine, it’s a pity to take that mash, the residue, and throw it away.So he decides to press it a little more; he takes that mash and presses it some more. He puts them on the wine press and gives akvetch. And a little more good wine squirts out. But it’s not enough for him. He says, “I can’t leaveanywine inside the peel. Maybe there’s some more good wine in there. So he puts it under the press again and puts some more pressure to get out the last drop.Now you have to know thatweare the good grapes and Hashem wants to press from usall the yiras Hashemthat He could get– for our own benefit. He wants to squeeze out some more “good wine of Awareness” from us because from good grapes you try to squeeze out all that you can.THE SOUL OF GOOD GRAPESAnd so Hakodosh Boruch Hu is pressing us with all kinds of pressure. One pressure might be trouble withparnasa, another might be trouble with your children, or trouble having children,chas v’shalom. And when you cry out to Hashem, that’s the good wine, the good wine of Awareness of Hashem dripping from the good grapes of yourneshamah. When your heart is torn with anguish, and you turn to Hashem for His help; you weep and you pour out your heart intefillah,that’sthe good wine that Hakodosh Boruch Hu wants from you. And sometimes He might press you again and again, and the good grapes will keep on giving good wine.Until finally Hashem will say, “Enough! You achieved exactly what I wanted from you.” And now רצון יראיו יעשה ואת שועתם ישמע ויושיעם – it means that Hakodosh Boruch Hu does the will of those who continue to grow in Awareness of Him, but first they have to cry out to Him.Shavasammeans that they cry out. They cry out! “Oh,” says Hashem, “If that’s the case, if you’re crying out to Me, so you’re becoming Aware of Me. So now, ויושיעם- “Now I’ll help you. Once you cried out, once you perfected yourself in Awareness of Hashem, so now I’ll answer you.”SO IT WASN’T FINE PRINT AFTER ALL!And that leads us to the answer that we were searching for in the beginning of our talk. Hakodosh Boruch Hu had given us His word at thebris bein hab’sarim; He caused Hisshechinato pass through thebesarim, the halves of the animals, and swore to Avraham that He would take us out of Mitzrayim. So how is it that now He could he make our geulahdependenton our crying out to Him? Is not the word of Hashem imperishable?!דבר אלוקינו יקום לעולם – “The word of Hashem stands forever” (Yeshayah 40:8).And so we’ll study again the words of Hashem to Avraham Avinu. ועבדום וענו אותם – “And they will enslave them, and oppress them” (Bereishis 15:13) The word וענו, “and they will oppress,” you must know actually means “and they will cause you to cry out.” The wordani, a poor or afflicted man, actually means “the man that cries out,” from the rootanah, “to speak up.” Thegemara(Bava Basra 10a) tells us that “the poor man is beloved by Hashem,” becausehe cries outto Hashem in his affliction, and he therefore becomes more Aware of Him.And so we have to say that the וענו אותם that Hashem promised us, thetzarosthat Hashem foretold would come upon us in Mitzrayim,were intended specifically for the Bnei Yisroel to reach greater and greater heights of Awareness of Hashem. That was its purpose. And how? By means of the עינוי, by means of them calling out to Him and thereby becoming more Aware of Him and of their dependence on Him.PREPARING US TO BECOME HASHEM’S PEOPLEHashem had brought the afflictions on the Am Yisroelfor the purposeof causing them to cry out to Him. He was preparing us inMitzrayimto become “My people,” and the oppression was His plan of conferring upon us the perfection of crying out to Him. The heavy affliction caused a great and unceasing outcry, which resulted in a heightened Awareness of Hashem. It was this keen Awareness which made them My people,and now the covenant with the Avos could be triggered, and become effective, in causing their deliverance from Mitzrayim.And until they would reach those heights, that achievement of Awareness, then the ועבדום might have been fulfilled, but the וענו אותם – “And I will cause them to oppress you until you cry out to Me,” would still be missing.In reality the entire bondage and affliction were intended to be stimulation towards the outcry to Hashem, and toward the achievement of a greater Awareness of Hashem, which would be demonstrated by their outcry to Him.PHARAOH, HASHEM’S WINEMAKERAnd if we wouldn’t have cried out to Hashem we would have remained there forever. Absolutely we wouldn’t have come out ofMitzrayim.Hashem said, “You have to cry out to Me if you want to get the salvation.” And that’s why Hashem applied pressure. When He saw that they were not crying enough so He told Pharaoh, “Get busy and apply a little more pressure to the wine press.” So all of a sudden Pharaoh comes out with a new decree: “Up till now you were making bricks and I supplied the hay, the straw. Now you go look for the straw by yourself.” That’s a double job. In addition to making bricks all day long, in your lunch hour, in your three minute lunch hour, go and look for straw too. Because את מתכונת הלבנים, the same amount of bricks has to be supplied, the same count of bricks you must continue to give.Now that’s putting pressure on the wine press with a vengeance!Even when they cried out, Hashem pressed more on the good grapes. So the Bnei Yisroel cried out more. And that’s what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted. “Ahh, my children. You remember Me now. You’re aware that I’m in existence – you know about Me now.” It’s like a man who is carrying his child on his shoulders – and this child was so happy riding on high; he thoughthewas the tall one. So he started kicking with his feet, kicking his father in the chest with his feet, he was so happy.So the father saw now that his son was not aware of him anymore, his child was riding on high. So when the father saw a dog coming, he put the child down near the dog, “Oh, Poppy, Poppy, save me.” “Oh,” the father said, “So I’m a Poppy now.”And so even after Hakodosh Boruch Hu took the Bnei Yisroel out from Mitzrayim, He was afraid –afraidfor them-that they might forget about Him. He took them out of Egypt, so it’s all over now. Now they can stop crying. So ויבוא עמלק – And Amalek came (Shemos 17:8). So they cried out to Hashem. “Oh,” Hashem said, “I’m still around, huh?!” Because that’s the arrangement of Hakodosh Boruch Hu in this world. It wasn’t a one-time event, in Mitzrayim. Forever and ever the plan of Hashem is to press the good grapes of the Am Yisroel a little bit more. And our job is to always utilize the opportunities and not make it necessary for the wine press to be pressed even harder.BE SMART AND DON’T WAITLet’s remember always that there aremadreigosandmadreigosin persecution – and wise is the man who will use all of them, even the smallest misfortune, to improve, by calling out to Hashem and becoming more Aware of Him.So you’re standing in your store and no customers are coming in. Why are you wasting the great opportunity?! You have to cry out to Hashem, “Ribono Shel Olam!Please give me some customers!” And those opportunities are endless, because all day long there are bumps in the road. Just because there’s no taskmaster standing over you with a whip, doesn’t mean you can’t use the opportunities oftza’arin your life – the smallest things and the biggest things – to call out to Hashem.YOU ARE STANDING IN A GOLD MINE!I’ll tell you something else. Don’t let yourshemonah esreigo to waste! You mean to say you’re going to spend your years just mumbling yourtefillosevery day by rote and not thinking about Hakadosh Baruch Hu?!?Shemonah esreiis a gold mine. And when you’re standing in a gold mine, even if you grab only one handful you’re already a wealthy man. But you have to know how to grab! כל שאינו אומרה בלשון תחנונים – “If you’re not begging Hashem for mercy, if you’re not crying out and begging, so your tefillah is not a tefillah” (Brachos 29b). When you daven, you have to daven כרש המבקש בפתח, like a poor man begging at the door of a rich man (Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 89:3). He’s talking here about a man without shoes, he’s hungry and cold, and he’s begging for something to eat. That’s a man who knows how to cry out! And that’s howwe’resupposed to daven.Now we can’t ask too much of you, but when you standshemonah esreiat least onebrachahfrom the gold mine you can choose to sayb’tachanunim. For one thing at least you can cry out to Hashem instead of running through the words. You have a cold? “R’faeinu Hashem, v’neirafei!”Cry out! Trouble withparnasah? Cry out, “Bareich aleinu!” There’s fighting in the house, machlokes with the neighbor?Sim shalom! Don’t just mumble the words to yourself; cry out to Hashem! At least in your mind you should be crying out; it should be a cry of the mind up to Hashem.And sometimes things get even more difficult. And what that means is that Hashem wants even more Awareness from you. When things are going hard withparnasah, so you get desperate – you were hoping this job would work out, or maybe this deal would go through – but nothing is going, you’re at your wit’s end! So what happens? בלית ברירה, you have no choice – your rich uncle won’t take your phone calls, the bank won’t lend you any more money, and welfare won’t pay the bills. So you have to cry out to Hashem. Ohh, that’s ahatzlacha– that’s more important than yourparnasah!LET’S LEARN FROM IYOV’S MISTAKENow, I want to expand this subject a little more. Because once we understand that the purpose of tefillah is Awareness of Hashem, so you’ll see that we’re not talking only abouttefillahwhen somethingalreadyhappened; I’m also talking abouttefillahthat itshouldn’thappen.Tefillah koidem l’tzarah, how important that is! When you falltachanun, you fall on your arm aftershemonahesrei, so it’stachanunim, you’re entreating Hashem for mercy.Rachum v’Chanun– “Hashem, You’re the Merciful One.”השם אל באפך תוכיחני – “Please Hashem, don’t rebuke me in Your anger,” ואל בחמתך תיסרני – Please don’t chastise me in Your wrath.” So you might think that thiskepitelis for Dovid maybe; he was in trouble so he was calling out, that’s why he said those words. No, don’t make that mistake; it’s for us! And we’re saying itso there shouldn’t come trouble. We want to be wise enough to call out to Hashem before thetzaraheven comes.Why waitchalilah? Maybe it’ll be too late then. You remember howIyovwas in trouble,gehokte tzaros. He lost his sons; he lost his daughters. He lost everything; he even lost his health. And he was sitting on a garbage pile; this wealthy man now didn’t have a home at all – he was sitting on the dunghill of the city and he was scratching his wounds. The puss was dripping from his wounds and he was scratching the itching wounds with a piece of broken pottery. Imagine the scene. It’sIyov, the “great richIyov,” sitting on a dunghill, with a piece of a broken pot scratching his itching wounds. He couldn’t even afford a salve to heal himself!So his friends came to visit him, hischaveirimwho knew him in his good days. And one of them said to him as follows: היערוך שועך ולא בצר – Did you set forth your outcrybeforeyou were in distress?” You hear that?! היערוך, “Did you set forth your outcry to Hashem, did you arrange yourtefillos, לא בצר,beforethe trouble came upon you?” (Iyov 36:19).That’s what he said toIyov: “Did you cry out to Hashembeforeyou were in trouble?” It was the good old days, when you could criticize a man who was suffering and he’d listen.THINK AHEADNow, I don’t know what the answer is; we don’t know whatIyovanswered his friends. Maybe he did. But we see what thegemarasays about that:לעולם יקדים אדם תפילה לצרה – “A man should always say his prayersbeforehe needs something, before the troubles set in” (Sanhedrin 44b). That’s a real sign ofyiras Hashem. The real sign of Awareness of Hashem is when you are always aware ofwhat could be– so many things could go wrong in a man’s life – and you cry out to Hashem so that He should save you from them all. Because that’s the system that Hakadosh Baruch Hu set up for mankind. That’s His prescription for the world. So if a man says to Hashem “Hakadosh Baruch Hu, I’m going to cry out to You even when there’s no trouble,” so that man is filling his prescription ofyiras Hashemin the best way possible.And Hashem says, “I’m satisfied – as long as you cry out. But to not cry out at all? I might have to give you a reason to cry out.The last year of his life, tragedy struck. His beloved grandson, Reb Yisroel Miller, was killed when his car collided with a bus while on the way to the Kosel with his bar mitzvah son. The news hit Rav Miller like a hammer blow. Living as he did in close proximity to his grandfather, Sruly had the opportunity to serve hiszeidein various ways and became close to him. From his youngest years, Sruly had learned privately with him. At theshivah, Rav Miller expressed his pain, telling the family, “I feel I should be sittingshivahhere along with you.” When his daughter asked him for a practical lesson the family could derive from the tragedy, Rav Miller responded that he felt that his dailytefillosfor his children and grandchildren were becoming habitual, so he needed to add more fervor when he beseeched Hashem to protect them. He suggested to his children to add morekavanahwhen they recited theberachahofHashkiveinu. (Rav Avigdor Miller – His Life and His Revolution p. 253)And so we say to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, “Hashem, please don’t give me any headaches. And from now on I’m going to ask You as much as I can to save me from headaches.” “Oh,” Hashem says. “That’s a deal that I like. As long as you’re aware of Me; as long as you ask Me every day to protect you from illness, then I don’t have to give you any illness. Of course if you’ll let down your side of the bargain, if you start saying the words only out of habit, so sometimes I’ll have to remind you. Sometimes a little headache I’ll send again so that you should call out to Me with more sincerity.”THE BEST TIME FOR PRAYERAnd so we are never telling Hakadosh Baruch Hu to change His will. Who are we to tell Hashem what’s good for us?! Let’s say, He prescribed a person should have to be in a hospital. Maybe He prescribed a person should have to lose his jobchalilahor have trouble with one of his childrenchasv’shalom. So we say to Hakadosh Baruch Hu beforehand, before he fills the prescription, “May it be Your will that I shouldn’t have to ever go into a hospital – except to visit my wife when she has a baby.”“Yehi ratzon m’lifanechahthat I shouldn’t have any problems with my boss, and that I should have my job for as long as I want it.” “Ribono Shel Olam, please keep my children on thederech hayashar, thederech hatorah.”The best time to cry out to be saved is when everything is well! It’s important for you young people to think about that. You’re healthy?! Cry out to Hakodosh Boruch Hu that you should stay well! Your children are well?! Cry out to Hashem, “Ribono Shel Olam, please! It shouldn’t come upon me or anyone in my family what happened to that man in shul!”Parnasahis good? Cry out to Hakodosh Boruch Hu! Suddenly things couldchas v’shalomhappen. Out of nowhere things happen!When you say ושמור צאתינו ובואינו לחיים טובים ולשלום – “Hashem, guard our going out and our coming back, for good life and peace” (Birkas Kriyas Shema – Maariv) you should be saying it with an outcry. At least in your mind it should be ותעל שועתם אל האלוקים. Who knows what could happen on the road once you walk outside?! On the streets, people are speeding in cars through the streets. And sometimes the car jumps the curb onto the sidewalk where people walk. Who knows what could happen?! You cross by a building and suddenly a facade of the building, it’s been hanging on for twenty-five, thirty years, a big chunk of cement falls loose and starts coming down. It’s very important that you should be a few inches out of the way. And that’s what yourtefillahcan accomplish.I DON’T WANT ANY SPECIALISTSWhen you walk down Ocean Avenue so you see signs. A doctor specializing in this, a different doctor specializing in this, a doctor specializing in something else. It’s no accident that you saw those signs today. Look how many things they specialize in! It’s a reminder to cry out! Look how many problemscould happen. Even one thing wrong and you have to go to a big specialistchas v’shalom.Sometimes you have to go to Manhattan and it costs a load of money. And then some people get a diagnosis, the dreaded diagnosis.Ay yah yay, the terrible news. And now thetzarosbegin. And there are so many things that could go wrong, it’s endless. So cry out nowkoideml’tzarah: “Ribono Shel Olam, please save me from that dreaded disease” – I don’t want to say it, it starts with a C.And when you pass by the shingle hanging on the next building, let it be a reminder of anothertzarahthat you don’t want to come upon you. I recommend that – walk by one of these fancy streets where there are a lot of doctor signs and practice up on crying out to Hashembefore the troubles come!You pass by a big drug store – all kinds of medicines, creams, drops, with long names for different problems. Bargain prices! So cry out, “Hashem, please I should never need this type of medicine for kidney failure.” You know what it means tonothave a working kidney? It’sgehenim! Cry out to Hashem, “Ribono Shel Olam, please keep my kidneys working. I don’t want to be hooked up to a kidney machine; I want to be able to empty my bladder on my own, in my own bathroom, not in a hospital room.”THERE’S NO CHESS IN THIS HOMEEven when you pass a funeral parlor, you should cry out. You know, if you’ll take a walk with me down Ocean Avenue, we’ll pass three separate funeral parlors. Funeral “homes” they call it. They want you to think maybe that they’re inside there playing chess, or reading the newspapers!No, he’s laying in a plain wooden box, that’s all. So every time you pass by the funeral parlor, you can cry out to Hashem, “Please keep me alive. Please give me good health andarichas yomim; I want to stay for a long time outside of this home.” You have to cry out to Hashem with intensity!You know what a tragedy it is when people have to beg Hakodosh Boruch Hu for peaceafterthe war has already begun? I’m talking about domestic peace, peace in the home. You should be crying out to Hashem all the time, during the times of peace – especially when there’s peace. There shouldn’t be any “war” in your household. And that there should be peace in the households of your sons and daughters. You ask Hashem, “Please don’t let my telephone ring with bad news.”Sometimes a daughter calls up,chalilah, she’s having a fight with her husband. She wants to leave him.Ay yah yay,the tragedy of a broken home. Don’t wait! When it’s quiet on all fronts, your daughters are quiet with their husbands. Nobody’s complaining – maybe they are, but not to you. You hear nothing from your children. That’s wonderful, thegreat peace ofshalombayis. And that’s when you should cry out to Hashem, that He should continue to keep peace in your home and the homes of your children.HASHEM, SAVE ME FROM BLINKING TOO MUCHAnd if you don’t have any litigation with your neighbors, that’s the best time todaven. If you never went through that, you’re a lucky man, and you want to keep it that way. Troublewith neighbors, fighting and recriminations, going to court; it’s alltzaros. A man used to come in here. He used to come here and he was blinking all the time. I saw that the man was very nervous. And so I spoke to him and he told me he has constant legal trouble with neighbors. Jewish neighbors. About the driveway, about this and about that,and it got so acute that he was dragged into the court again and again. That’stzaros.And so we ask Hakadosh Baruch Hu,שלום רב על ישראלעמך תשים – “Great peace in every area of our lives you should put upon us.”“Please Hashem. There should be peace inside of our stomachs. Our stomach shouldn’t complain, shouldn’t growl, shouldn’t groan. Our nerves shouldn’t complain, our head shouldn’t complain.” The body has a lot to say, and when the body is quiet and it’s peace all throughout the body, people aren’t grateful. You don’t realize how lucky you are. Your brain is getting good messages from all parts of the body. Constantly. You’re not aware of the messages. When do you become aware? When even once the messages are not good. Even if one pinprick somewhere on your skin is taking place, it’s relayed to your brain and you’re acutely aware of it. And so, when nothing is happening, it’sshalom. It’s complete tranquility on all fronts. From your toes to the scalp of your head, it’s quiet on all fronts.And when all is quiet, that’s the best opportunity to cry out to Hashem that it should remain quiet.THINK ABOUT WHAT COULD HAPPEN TO YOUOnly that when you call out to Hashem before thetzarah,it has to be with the same intensity as during atzarah. The same Awareness of Hashem you have to accomplish in the good times! If you would think even a little bit about whattzarosdoes to a person, hospitals, and bills, and litigation, and so much pain and anguish! Cry out to Hakodosh Boruch Hu that it shouldn’t happen! At all times you should be crying out.And don’t think it’s excessive what I’m telling you now. You can never ask enough for Hashem to help you, becauseyou can never be too Aware of Hashem! Because what we’ve learned from ourparshais thatwe’re in this world primarily to become Aware of Hashem.That’s our perfection! The more we call out to Him the more ourneshamosare being purified.And therefore, usually we have two choices: You can become Aware of Him while He’s still giving you good things – while you’re healthy, while your wife and children are healthy, while you still haveparnasah, and so on and so forth – by crying out to Him and entreating Him that everything should remain as is; that’s the best way to squeeze out from the good grapes the wine of Awareness of Hashem.THANK YOU FOR ALL THE TROUBLES!However, in this world, Hakodosh Boruch Hu will always press the good grapes of theAm Yisroellike He did inMitzrayim; there’s always some more wine of Awareness to squeeze from you that you haven’tkvetchedout on your own. And so Hashem says, “It pays to give you trouble because the gain, the benefit for you when you’re thinking about Me, is the greatest of benefits. And when you come to the Next World, you’ll say, אודך השם כי אנפת בי – “I thank You Hashem for causing me that pain, for giving me thistza’aror thattza’ar, because it made me call out to You. And it was the crying out in that world that gave me the greatest success, Awareness of You, Hashem, so that I can bask forever in the Presence of Yourshechinah.” HAVE A WONDERFUL SHABBOS See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hashem’s Bitter MedicineIT’S TIME TO GO HOME!In Parshas Va’eira the seeds of our redemption from Mitzrayimfinally begin to take root and sprout. The time has come for the ten makkos, the great retribution upon Pharaoh and his slavemaster people, and for the Am Yisroel to finally make their exit from the long and arduous servitude in the ארץ לא להם, the land not their own. The geulah of the Am Yisroel, the fulfillment of ואחרי כן יצאו ברכוש גדול, had finally arrived.And on what basis was the Am Yisroel going to be taken out of Mitzrayim now? That we all know; it was the bris bein hab’sarim, the famous covenant that Hashem had made with Avraham centuries earlier. You remember when Avraham asked Hakodosh Boruch Hu: במה אדע כי אירשנה – “How do I know that the land will be mine”? (Bereishis 15:8). “Give me some guarantee,” begged Avraham, “a guarantee that I’m going to receive the land; that my progeny will one day inherit this land.” Avraham was worried; “Who knows? Maybe our merit won’t be sufficient. Maybe someday You’ll be unpleased with us. I want an unbreakable covenant with You!” So Hakadosh Baruch Hu told him then, “Take three calves, three goats and three rams, so that you and I can enter into a covenant.” And what did Avraham do? He took these animals and cut them in half and set the parts opposite each other.That was the practice in those days. It says that in Yirmiyahu (34:19). When you wanted to enter a covenant, when you wanted to commit yourself to a course of action with an unbreakable promise, you would divide an animal and pass between its pieces as a sign of your commitment to uphold the deal.HAKODOSH BORUCH HU SEALS THE DEALSo what happened? Hakadosh Baruch Hu sent down His Presence, His glory, in the form of a fiery furnace to “seal the deal.” Suddenly a great dread and a darkness fell upon the scene. And Avraham witnessed how this fiery furnace – it was the Presence of Hashem – marched between the offerings. והנה תנור עשן ולפיד אש אשר עבר בין הגזרים האלה – “And behold, a smoking furnace and a torch of fire passed through the pieces” (ibid. 15:17).That was the bris bein hab’sarim, when Hakodosh Boruch Hu came down and entered into a covenant with Avraham. ביום ההוא כרת השם את אברהם ברית – “On that day Hashem made a covenant with Avraham” (ibid. 15:18). It’s something unequaled in the history of our people, even among the greatest prophets, that such a covenant was made. That Hakodosh Boruch Hu should come down and “shake hands” to close the deal?! It’s unheard of in all of history.And what did Hakodosh Boruch Hu tell Avraham at that moment? ידע תדע כי גר יהיה זרעך בארץ לא להם – “Know with certainty that your offspring will be sojourners in a land not their own, ועבדום וענו אותם… ואחרי כן יצאו ברכוש גדול- “And they will enslave them, and oppress them… and afterwards they shall leave with great possessions… to your descendants I have given this land” (ibid. 15:13-18). So it was an imperishable promise that Hakadosh Baruch Hu had made, that He would stand by His people and that He would eventually take them out of Mitzrayim and bring them to the land that He had promised to them.THE TIME FINALLY COMESAnd now, in the beginning of our parsha, Hakodosh Boruch Hu is telling Moshe to let His people know that the time has come. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is invoking that great promise He had made centuries before. וגם הקימותי את בריתי איתם לתת להם את ארץ כנען – “I am upholding My covenant that I made for them to give them Eretz Canaan” (Va’eira 6:4). “The time has come for Me to fulfill My promise to the Bnei Yisroel,” says Hashem, והבאתי אתכם אל הארץ אשר נשאתי את ידי לתת אותה – “And I will bring you to the land which I raised up My hand to give it to you” (ibid. 6:8).But it’s very important that we should listen to the next verse, the possuk after Hashem invokes the great promise: וגם הקימותי את בריתי – “And not only am I upholding the covenant I made with Avraham,” but also – now listen to these words: וגם אני שמעתי את נאקת בני ישראל אשר מצרים מעבידים אותם – and I also heard the outcry of the Bnei Yisroel, ואזכור את בריתי – “And therefore, I am now reminded of My promise to them” (ibid. 6:5). What do we see here? That despite the covenant, despite the oath that had to be fulfilled – it’s the word of Hashem after all so there’s no way that He would fail to fulfill it – despite all that, Hakodosh Boruch Hu waiteduntil he heard their outcry.THE GREAT OUTCRYAnd not just one outcry; they cried out for a long time. It’s repeated again and again: “I have heard their crying out” (ibid. 3:7), “Their crying out has come before Me” (ibid. 3:9), “I have heard the groaning outcry of Bnei Yisroel.” And it was only when He heard enough outcries from them, וגם שמעתי את נאקת בני ישראל, it was only then that finally Hakodosh Boruch Hu decided to fulfill His covenant with them. And that’s something we say every day in the siddur ועונה לעמו ישראל בעת שועם אליו – “Hashem answers His people Yisroel, at the time that they cry out to Him.” It doesn’t say merely that He hastens to their succor; that He is at hand to help them. It doesn’t say that. It says v’oneh, “He is ready to answer them.” When?B’eis shav’ameilav, at the time that they cry out. Shav’am means “a great outcry.” ואת שועתם ישמע – “He hears their outcries,” ויושיעם – “And then He rescues them” (Tehillim 145:19). So we see that it’s not sufficient merely to mumble a little prayer. And even to cry out once or twice is not enough. It’s important to make a big outcry to Hashem, and to do it again and again.DID WE MISS THE FINE PRINT?And actually that’s a very big question. Because why didHashem need our outcry? He had already raised His hand and swore that He would take us out from Mitzrayim! So why is the crying out to Him for help under the heavy weight of oppression so important? And even more remarkable, the words of the possuk imply that our redemption was dependent on our crying out: ועתה הנה צעקת בני ישראל באה אלי…ועתה לכה ואשלחך אל פרעה והוצא את עמי בני ישראל ממצרים – “The outcry of BneiYisroel has come to Me…And now I will send you to Pharaoh and take out My nation from Mitzrayim” (ibid. 3:9-10). Even the great covenant of the bris bein hab’sarim, the inviolate word of Hashem was dependenton the Am Yisroel’s entreaties, on their crying out to Hashem. And that’s very strange because that wasn’t part of the bris bein hab’sarim; “crying out” wasn’t part of the deal that we “signed!”But first, there’s a fundamental question we have to ask about the entire subject of tefillah, of praying for something. We introduce many of our prayers with the words yehi ratzon – “May it be Your will, Hashem…” For instance, suppose somebody is in the midst of shemonah esrei and he remembers there’s somebody ill, chalilah, in the family. Or it’s a person he knows and he wants to pray for him. So he adds these words: יהי רצון מלפניך השם אלוקינו ואלוקי אבותינו שתשלח מהרה רפואה שלימה מן השמים רפואת הנפש ורפואת הגוף – “It should be Your will Hashem, our G-d and the G-d of our fathers, that You should send speedily a complete recovery from heaven, a recovery of the soul and recovery of the body,” that means mentally and physically. And we mention the person, his name, so that he should be healed among all the other cholei Yisroel. Now, we are saying yehi ratzon, it should be Your will. That’s how we introduce the tefillah.ILLNESS IS ALSO CHESSED HASHEMNow we have to know that whatever “happens” to a person is Hashem’s will. Nobody is sick because of accident. It’s always Hashem’s will. Of course, sometimes a man can induce the illness by his own carelessness, but nevertheless it’s Hashem’s will. That’s his punishment for being negligent with his care, with his health, or his safety. If a man is careless, he’s being punished by Hashem. No matter what, it’s Hashem’s will that decreed that this man should be ill.And when Hakadosh Baruch Hu makes a decree like that, we have a principle, a fundamental principle called kol orchos Hashem chesed v’emes – all the ways of Hashem are kindliness and truth (Tehillim 25:10). צדיק השם בכל דרכיו – “Hashem is righteous in all His ways,” וחסיד בכל מעשיו – ”And He is kindly in all His acts.” (Ibid. 145:17) Now, when you come in here you have to divest yourself of outside attitudes. Because here we want to study Torah attitudes; and the truth of the matter is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu does everything for kindly purposes. Everything! And if it was His will that this man should be ill, then it must be for this man’s benefit. What the most important benefit is, we’ll study soon, but it’s out of the question that it shouldn’t be a kindliness. It certainly is for the person’s benefit.“HASHEM, CAN I GET A SECOND OPINION?”So here it was Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s ratzon to give this man the benefit of becoming sick. So the question arises, where do we get the audacity to ask Hashem to change His will? Suppose a man goes to a physician and the physician writes a prescription for some medication, let’s say it’s a foul tasting medication. Would the man say to the physician, יהי רצון מלפניך – “It should be your will not to give me this prescription. I want to get along without the prescription.”? Only a meshugeneh would say such a thing! The doctor studied for years and years, his profession is medicine, his knowledge and experience is medicine. He’s the expert here. And you’re just an obstinate fellow, maybe ignorant too. Either the expense is too much for you, or maybe you don’t like the taste of the medicine. So you don’t want to bother with it. It’s a meshugas to even ask such a thing!And here is Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the great Healer, and He’s prescribing for a man certain pills – whether the pills are troubles, or headaches, or pains, or illness – big and small. Whatever it is, it’s certainly pills. There’s no question that Hashem is benefitting the man by giving him these troubles, these misfortunes, pains or illnesses. So how can a man say to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, “I beg of you, yehi ratzon, that You should change the prescription, or not give me the prescription at all?” That’s a big question that needs to be answered. And actually that’s what all our bakashosseem to be – an attempt to change the will of Hashem.WHY ALL THE TURBULENCE?And another question – just as important and maybe even more perplexing: What’s Hashem’s purpose in causing any disturbance, either in a man’s health or in his family life or in his business? It’s a question we want to ask of Him: “Why do You send anything to ruffle the tranquility of our lives?” After all, like we just said, Hashem’s ways are perfect, and He is kindly in all of His deeds. That’s a truism. So why is it that we see sometimes that Hashem does things that seem to be contradictory to these principles of kindliness?Actually it’s a question that all thinking men ask one time or another. Because chalilahsomething happens; sometimes it happens. Here’s a man who’s successful, and all of a sudden a freak misfortune happens to him and unfortunately he’s in the hospital. It’s not an accident, it’s Hashem! So he’s thinking, “Why did this happen to me? Before everything was going smoothly with me; boruch Hashem I was a good frum Jew more or less. Why did Hashem do this?”THE GREATEST CHESED!And the answer is as follows: There is a great kindliness that’s most paramount, more important than all the chassodim in the world – more important than parnasah, more important than shalom bayis, and good health. And that’s the kindliness called yiras Hashem. Yiras Hashem – which means to be Aware of Hashem, that’s the most important thing in your life. Now, this might sound queer to the ears of those who live with materialism, but it’s a fundamental principle that we must get into our heads. We are here to gain Awareness of Hashem.Now, if that’s the purpose, then what a tragedy it is when people let their lives go by and fail to utilize the opportunities to recognize Hashem. You forgot about Him?! To forget Hashem is the worst ruination in life! To live without awareness is not a life worth living!So Hashem sees that you’re wasting your life – of course you’re a frum person – you’re doing mitzvos, you’re ultra-ultra Orthodox. But that’s not enough for Hashem. He doesn’t want “Orthodox;” He wants to squeeze greatness out of you! He wants to save you so that your life shouldn’t be wasted. Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants to give you the gift of being Aware of Him.HASHEM: A ONE DAY HEADACHE FOR CHAIMSo what does Hashem do? He orders a prescription; one headache. Prescribed: Chaim ben Dovid, one headache, for one day. It’s a pill. And so one morning you wake up with a headache. And what’s the purpose of that prescription? The purpose of the headache is so that you should call out to Him and achieve the perfection of even a little more awareness of Hashem. And when you do that, you’re turning your migraine into diamonds!All the events in a man’s life are being manipulated by Hakadosh Boruch Hu; He puts disturbances in your life so you’ll call out to Him. And that is the chief purpose of every mishap in your life; to cause you to cry out for aid from Hashem and to thereby become more aware of Him. The outcry that comes from desperation, from unrequited needs and from anguished hopes for the future, causes Awareness of Hashem’s Presence, and it is that Awareness that is the true achievement, the chief purpose of Man’s existence in this life.“BETTER ANGER THAN LAUGHTER”And now we have an answer to the age old question of why “bad” things happen to good people: Because Awareness of Hashem is the greatest chesedthat Hashem can give man, and most often it is the tzaros, and the crying out to Hashem it encourages, that brings this Awareness. When you’re subject to adversity, that’s the great opportunity to be makirHakodosh Boruch Hu, to recognize Hashem. When a man finds himself subject to mishaps and misfortunes – he needs things, so it’s much easier for him to raise his eyes to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and ask for it; and that is the great gift of Awareness of Hashem.And therefore, טוב כעס משחוק – Better anger than laughter” (Koheles 7:3). Now we know that’s not true. Anger is no good; it’s a very big mistake to get angry. But there is one anger that is good – and that’s Hashem’s anger. טוב כעס שכועס הקדוש ברוך הוא על הצדיקים – That’s good. When Hashem gets angry at you, that’s tov, that’s good for you. Don’t ask for it though. You ask for good times. הרחב פיך ואמלאהו, ask Him for good times and appreciate what He’s giving you. But still, “when Hashem shows his anger to the tzadikim, that’s better than the smiling Hashem does on the reshaim.” (Shabbos 30b) If there ever happened that a tzadik, chalilah had a setback, a misfortune, so you must know, and he must know, that it’s a stroke of good fortune. Now I know that it’s very hard to accept, but we have to learn that and understand that it’s a chesed gadol when that happens to him. Tov, it’s better, it’s a greater hatzlacha than had Hashem smiled.ברוע פנים ייטב לב, When the face is sad then the heart becomes better (ibid.). Now it doesn’t mean you should be sad and sour faced. On the contrary – if you’re sad faced it shows that you don’t appreciate what Hashem is doing for you. You don’t appreciate that things are tov. But sometimes a man against his will is sad because some misfortune has happened to him, so he should know however that ייטב לב, his neshama is improving.DON’T TAKE THE WRONG MEDICINESo when Hashem sends you a headache, you have to know that it was for a great purpose. And if you take an aspirin, and after one day the headache goes away, and you never cried out to Hashem, so you wasted the prescription. You’ve wasted an opportunity! The purpose was for you to become Aware of Hashem, and you wasted the glorious opportunity.And so when we ask Hashem “Yehi ratzon, let it be Your will that I be healed,” we are not telling Hakadosh Baruch Hu to change His will. Yehi ratzonmeans this: “Hashem, I know that what You want from me is that I should become more Aware of You. And that’s what I’m doing now; I’m calling out to you. Let it be Your will that I can get better now – or my tzaarshould be removed, whatever it is you’re asking for – becauseI’m calling out to You. I’m becoming more aware of You. Whatever trouble You gave me, can go away now because I’ve achieved the purpose.”WHEN HASHEM DOESN’T ANSWERNow the truth is that sometimes you cry out to Hashem and He doesn’t answer. A man called me on the telephone and he tells me: He’s crying out and crying out, and there’s no answer. He wants to know what he’s supposed to think.He’s supposed to think that Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants him to cry out even more. And suppose he cries out even more – let’s say a man is on his deathbed, he’s an old man, 119 years old, he can’t expect to live much more. But still he cries out on his deathbed. Did he waste his time? No! He achieved maybe in his last minutes more than he did in his whole life.119 YEARS IS NOT ENOUGH?!An old man is crying out on his deathbed, he says “Oh, Hashem, heal me!” “Oh it’s silly,” you’ll say. The bystanders think it’s ridiculous. “You want to be healed?! How long do you want to hang around here?! The children want to take over the business already, they want the “old man” out of the way already. 119 years is not enough?! No, for him it’s not enough. When you’re on your deathbed it’s never enough. He wants to live a thousand years. Why shouldn’t he? He has a great grandfather who lived almost a thousand years. Mesushelach lived almost a thousand years so why can’t he?So he’s crying out to Hashem. Why not? He has the right to cry out. And when he finally takes his last breath don’t think he didn’t accomplish with the crying out. He accomplished plenty. The crying out is the purpose.That’s the biggest achievement there is. So nobody is ever frustrated in his davenen when he’s not answered – because he has gained the most important thing, more Awareness of Hashem.DISCOVERING WINEMAKINGIt’s like a man who has a very good vineyard. He has blue-blooded grapes, good quality grapes “with a yichus, with a pedigree.” So when he takes his grapes to the wine press and he presses out the wine, it’s a pity to take that mash, the residue, and throw it away.So he decides to press it a little more; he takes that mash and presses it some more. He puts them on the wine press and gives a kvetch. And a little more good wine squirts out. But it’s not enough for him. He says, “I can’t leave any wine inside the peel. Maybe there’s some more good wine in there. So he puts it under the press again and puts some more pressure to get out the last drop.Now you have to know that weare the good grapes and Hashem wants to press from us all the yiras Hashem that He could get – for our own benefit. He wants to squeeze out some more “good wine of Awareness” from us because from good grapes you try to squeeze out all that you can.THE SOUL OF GOOD GRAPESAnd so Hakodosh Boruch Hu is pressing us with all kinds of pressure. One pressure might be trouble with parnasa, another might be trouble with your children, or trouble having children, chas v’shalom. And when you cry out to Hashem, that’s the good wine, the good wine of Awareness of Hashem dripping from the good grapes of your neshamah. When your heart is torn with anguish, and you turn to Hashem for His help; you weep and you pour out your heart in tefillah, that’s the good wine that Hakodosh Boruch Hu wants from you. And sometimes He might press you again and again, and the good grapes will keep on giving good wine.Until finally Hashem will say, “Enough! You achieved exactly what I wanted from you.” And now רצון יראיו יעשה ואת שועתם ישמע ויושיעם – it means that Hakodosh Boruch Hu does the will of those who continue to grow in Awareness of Him, but first they have to cry out to Him. Shavasam means that they cry out. They cry out! “Oh,” says Hashem, “If that’s the case, if you’re crying out to Me, so you’re becoming Aware of Me. So now, ויושיעם- “Now I’ll help you. Once you cried out, once you perfected yourself in Awareness of Hashem, so now I’ll answer you.”SO IT WASN’T FINE PRINT AFTER ALL!And that leads us to the answer that we were searching for in the beginning of our talk. Hakodosh Boruch Hu had given us His word at the bris bein hab’sarim; He caused His shechina to pass through the besarim, the halves of the animals, and swore to Avraham that He would take us out of Mitzrayim. So how is it that now He could he make our geulah dependent on our crying out to Him? Is not the word of Hashem imperishable?!דבר אלוקינו יקום לעולם – “The word of Hashem stands forever” (Yeshayah 40:8).And so we’ll study again the words of Hashem to Avraham Avinu. ועבדום וענו אותם – “And they will enslave them, and oppress them” (Bereishis 15:13) The word וענו, “and they will oppress,” you must know actually means “and they will cause you to cry out.” The word ani, a poor or afflicted man, actually means “the man that cries out,” from the root anah, “to speak up.” The gemara (Bava Basra 10a) tells us that “the poor man is beloved by Hashem,” because he cries out to Hashem in his affliction, and he therefore becomes more Aware of Him.And so we have to say that the וענו אותם that Hashem promised us, the tzaros that Hashem foretold would come upon us in Mitzrayim, were intended specifically for the Bnei Yisroel to reach greater and greater heights of Awareness of Hashem. That was its purpose. And how? By means of the עינוי, by means of them calling out to Him and thereby becoming more Aware of Him and of their dependence on Him.PREPARING US TO BECOME HASHEM’S PEOPLEHashem had brought the afflictions on the Am Yisroel for the purpose of causing them to cry out to Him. He was preparing us in Mitzrayim to become “My people,” and the oppression was His plan of conferring upon us the perfection of crying out to Him. The heavy affliction caused a great and unceasing outcry, which resulted in a heightened Awareness of Hashem. It was this keen Awareness which made them My people, and now the covenant with the Avos could be triggered, and become effective, in causing their deliverance from Mitzrayim.And until they would reach those heights, that achievement of Awareness, then the ועבדום might have been fulfilled, but the וענו אותם – “And I will cause them to oppress you until you cry out to Me,” would still be missing. In reality the entire bondage and affliction were intended to be stimulation towards the outcry to Hashem, and toward the achievement of a greater Awareness of Hashem, which would be demonstrated by their outcry to Him.PHARAOH, HASHEM’S WINEMAKERAnd if we wouldn’t have cried out to Hashem we would have remained there forever. Absolutely we wouldn’t have come out of Mitzrayim. Hashem said, “You have to cry out to Me if you want to get the salvation.” And that’s why Hashem applied pressure. When He saw that they were not crying enough so He told Pharaoh, “Get busy and apply a little more pressure to the wine press.” So all of a sudden Pharaoh comes out with a new decree: “Up till now you were making bricks and I supplied the hay, the straw. Now you go look for the straw by yourself.” That’s a double job. In addition to making bricks all day long, in your lunch hour, in your three minute lunch hour, go and look for straw too. Because את מתכונת הלבנים, the same amount of bricks has to be supplied, the same count of bricks you must continue to give.Now that’s putting pressure on the wine press with a vengeance! Even when they cried out, Hashem pressed more on the good grapes. So the Bnei Yisroel cried out more. And that’s what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted. “Ahh, my children. You remember Me now. You’re aware that I’m in existence – you know about Me now.” It’s like a man who is carrying his child on his shoulders – and this child was so happy riding on high; he thought he was the tall one. So he started kicking with his feet, kicking his father in the chest with his feet, he was so happy.So the father saw now that his son was not aware of him anymore, his child was riding on high. So when the father saw a dog coming, he put the child down near the dog, “Oh, Poppy, Poppy, save me.” “Oh,” the father said, “So I’m a Poppy now.”And so even after Hakodosh Boruch Hu took the Bnei Yisroel out from Mitzrayim, He was afraid – afraid for them -that they might forget about Him. He took them out of Egypt, so it’s all over now. Now they can stop crying. So ויבוא עמלק – And Amalek came (Shemos 17:8). So they cried out to Hashem. “Oh,” Hashem said, “I’m still around, huh?!” Because that’s the arrangement of Hakodosh Boruch Hu in this world. It wasn’t a one-time event, in Mitzrayim. Forever and ever the plan of Hashem is to press the good grapes of the Am Yisroel a little bit more. And our job is to always utilize the opportunities and not make it necessary for the wine press to be pressed even harder.BE SMART AND DON’T WAITLet’s remember always that there are madreigos and madreigos in persecution – and wise is the man who will use all of them, even the smallest misfortune, to improve, by calling out to Hashem and becoming more Aware of Him.So you’re standing in your store and no customers are coming in. Why are you wasting the great opportunity?! You have to cry out to Hashem, “Ribono Shel Olam!Please give me some customers!” And those opportunities are endless, because all day long there are bumps in the road. Just because there’s no taskmaster standing over you with a whip, doesn’t mean you can’t use the opportunities of tza’ar in your life – the smallest things and the biggest things – to call out to Hashem.YOU ARE STANDING IN A GOLD MINE!I’ll tell you something else. Don’t let your shemonah esrei go to waste! You mean to say you’re going to spend your years just mumbling your tefillos every day by rote and not thinking about Hakadosh Baruch Hu?!? Shemonah esrei is a gold mine. And when you’re standing in a gold mine, even if you grab only one handful you’re already a wealthy man. But you have to know how to grab! כל שאינו אומרה בלשון תחנונים – “If you’re not begging Hashem for mercy, if you’re not crying out and begging, so your tefillah is not a tefillah” (Brachos 29b). When you daven, you have to daven כרש המבקש בפתח, like a poor man begging at the door of a rich man (Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 89:3). He’s talking here about a man without shoes, he’s hungry and cold, and he’s begging for something to eat. That’s a man who knows how to cry out! And that’s how we’resupposed to daven.Now we can’t ask too much of you, but when you stand shemonah esrei at least one brachah from the gold mine you can choose to say b’tachanunim. For one thing at least you can cry out to Hashem instead of running through the words. You have a cold? “R’faeinu Hashem, v’neirafei!” Cry out! Trouble with parnasah? Cry out, “Bareich aleinu!” There’s fighting in the house, machlokes with the neighbor? Sim shalom! Don’t just mumble the words to yourself; cry out to Hashem! At least in your mind you should be crying out; it should be a cry of the mind up to Hashem.And sometimes things get even more difficult. And what that means is that Hashem wants even more Awareness from you. When things are going hard with parnasah, so you get desperate – you were hoping this job would work out, or maybe this deal would go through – but nothing is going, you’re at your wit’s end! So what happens? בלית ברירה, you have no choice – your rich uncle won’t take your phone calls, the bank won’t lend you any more money, and welfare won’t pay the bills. So you have to cry out to Hashem. Ohh, that’s a hatzlacha – that’s more important than your parnasah!LET’S LEARN FROM IYOV’S MISTAKENow, I want to expand this subject a little more. Because once we understand that the purpose of tefillah is Awareness of Hashem, so you’ll see that we’re not talking only about tefillah when something alreadyhappened; I’m also talking about tefillah that it shouldn’t happen. Tefillah koidem l’tzarah, how important that is! When you fall tachanun, you fall on your arm after shemonah esrei, so it’s tachanunim, you’re entreating Hashem for mercy. Rachum v’Chanun – “Hashem, You’re the Merciful One.” השם אל באפך תוכיחני – “Please Hashem, don’t rebuke me in Your anger,” ואל בחמתך תיסרני – Please don’t chastise me in Your wrath.” So you might think that this kepitel is for Dovid maybe; he was in trouble so he was calling out, that’s why he said those words. No, don’t make that mistake; it’s for us! And we’re saying it so there shouldn’t come trouble. We want to be wise enough to call out to Hashem before the tzaraheven comes.Why wait chalilah? Maybe it’ll be too late then. You remember how Iyov was in trouble, gehokte tzaros. He lost his sons; he lost his daughters. He lost everything; he even lost his health. And he was sitting on a garbage pile; this wealthy man now didn’t have a home at all – he was sitting on the dunghill of the city and he was scratching his wounds. The puss was dripping from his wounds and he was scratching the itching wounds with a piece of broken pottery. Imagine the scene. It’s Iyov, the “great rich Iyov,” sitting on a dunghill, with a piece of a broken pot scratching his itching wounds. He couldn’t even afford a salve to heal himself!So his friends came to visit him, his chaveirim who knew him in his good days. And one of them said to him as follows: היערוך שועך ולא בצר – Did you set forth your outcry before you were in distress?” You hear that?! היערוך, “Did you set forth your outcry to Hashem, did you arrange your tefillos, לא בצר, before the trouble came upon you?” (Iyov 36:19).That’s what he said to Iyov: “Did you cry out to Hashem before you were in trouble?” It was the good old days, when you could criticize a man who was suffering and he’d listen.THINK AHEADNow, I don’t know what the answer is; we don’t know what Iyov answered his friends. Maybe he did. But we see what the gemara says about that: לעולם יקדים אדם תפילה לצרה – “A man should always say his prayers before he needs something, before the troubles set in” (Sanhedrin 44b). That’s a real sign of yiras Hashem. The real sign of Awareness of Hashem is when you are always aware of what could be – so many things could go wrong in a man’s life – and you cry out to Hashem so that He should save you from them all. Because that’s the system that Hakadosh Baruch Hu set up for mankind. That’s His prescription for the world. So if a man says to Hashem “Hakadosh Baruch Hu, I’m going to cry out to You even when there’s no trouble,” so that man is filling his prescription of yiras Hashem in the best way possible. And Hashem says, “I’m satisfied – as long as you cry out. But to not cry out at all? I might have to give you a reason to cry out.The last year of his life, tragedy struck. His beloved grandson, Reb Yisroel Miller, was killed when his car collided with a bus while on the way to the Kosel with his bar mitzvah son. The news hit Rav Miller like a hammer blow. Living as he did in close proximity to his grandfather, Sruly had the opportunity to serve his zeide in various ways and became close to him. From his youngest years, Sruly had learned privately with him. At the shivah, Rav Miller expressed his pain, telling the family, “I feel I should be sitting shivah here along with you.” When his daughter asked him for a practical lesson the family could derive from the tragedy, Rav Miller responded that he felt that his daily tefillos for his children and grandchildren were becoming habitual, so he needed to add more fervor when he beseeched Hashem to protect them. He suggested to his children to add more kavanah when they recited the berachah of Hashkiveinu. (Rav Avigdor Miller – His Life and His Revolution p. 253)And so we say to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, “Hashem, please don’t give me any headaches. And from now on I’m going to ask You as much as I can to save me from headaches.” “Oh,” Hashem says. “That’s a deal that I like. As long as you’re aware of Me; as long as you ask Me every day to protect you from illness, then I don’t have to give you any illness. Of course if you’ll let down your side of the bargain, if you start saying the words only out of habit, so sometimes I’ll have to remind you. Sometimes a little headache I’ll send again so that you should call out to Me with more sincerity.”THE BEST TIME FOR PRAYERAnd so we are never telling Hakadosh Baruch Hu to change His will. Who are we to tell Hashem what’s good for us?! Let’s say, He prescribed a person should have to be in a hospital. Maybe He prescribed a person should have to lose his job chalilah or have trouble with one of his children chasv’shalom. So we say to Hakadosh Baruch Hu beforehand, before he fills the prescription, “May it be Your will that I shouldn’t have to ever go into a hospital – except to visit my wife when she has a baby.” “Yehi ratzon m’lifanechah that I shouldn’t have any problems with my boss, and that I should have my job for as long as I want it.” “Ribono Shel Olam, please keep my children on the derech hayashar, the derech hatorah.”The best time to cry out to be saved is when everything is well ! It’s important for you young people to think about that. You’re healthy?! Cry out to Hakodosh Boruch Hu that you should stay well! Your children are well?! Cry out to Hashem, “Ribono Shel Olam, please! It shouldn’t come upon me or anyone in my family what happened to that man in shul!” Parnasah is good? Cry out to Hakodosh Boruch Hu! Suddenly things could chas v’shalom happen. Out of nowhere things happen!When you say ושמור צאתינו ובואינו לחיים טובים ולשלום – “Hashem, guard our going out and our coming back, for good life and peace” (Birkas Kriyas Shema – Maariv) you should be saying it with an outcry. At least in your mind it should be ותעל שועתם אל האלוקים. Who knows what could happen on the road once you walk outside?! On the streets, people are speeding in cars through the streets. And sometimes the car jumps the curb onto the sidewalk where people walk. Who knows what could happen?! You cross by a building and suddenly a facade of the building, it’s been hanging on for twenty-five, thirty years, a big chunk of cement falls loose and starts coming down. It’s very important that you should be a few inches out of the way. And that’s what your tefillah can accomplish.I DON’T WANT ANY SPECIALISTSWhen you walk down Ocean Avenue so you see signs. A doctor specializing in this, a different doctor specializing in this, a doctor specializing in something else. It’s no accident that you saw those signs today. Look how many things they specialize in! It’s a reminder to cry out! Look how many problems could happen. Even one thing wrong and you have to go to a big specialist chas v’shalom. Sometimes you have to go to Manhattan and it costs a load of money. And then some people get a diagnosis, the dreaded diagnosis. Ay yah yay, the terrible news. And now the tzaros begin. And there are so many things that could go wrong, it’s endless. So cry out now koidem l’tzarah: “Ribono Shel Olam, please save me from that dreaded disease” – I don’t want to say it, it starts with a C.And when you pass by the shingle hanging on the next building, let it be a reminder of another tzarah that you don’t want to come upon you. I recommend that – walk by one of these fancy streets where there are a lot of doctor signs and practice up on crying out to Hashem before the troubles come!You pass by a big drug store – all kinds of medicines, creams, drops, with long names for different problems. Bargain prices! So cry out, “Hashem, please I should never need this type of medicine for kidney failure.” You know what it means to not have a working kidney? It’s gehenim! Cry out to Hashem, “Ribono Shel Olam, please keep my kidneys working. I don’t want to be hooked up to a kidney machine; I want to be able to empty my bladder on my own, in my own bathroom, not in a hospital room.”THERE’S NO CHESS IN THIS HOMEEven when you pass a funeral parlor, you should cry out. You know, if you’ll take a walk with me down Ocean Avenue, we’ll pass three separate funeral parlors. Funeral “homes” they call it. They want you to think maybe that they’re inside there playing chess, or reading the newspapers! No, he’s laying in a plain wooden box, that’s all. So every time you pass by the funeral parlor, you can cry out to Hashem, “Please keep me alive. Please give me good health and arichas yomim; I want to stay for a long time outside of this home.” You have to cry out to Hashem with intensity!You know what a tragedy it is when people have to beg Hakodosh Boruch Hu for peace after the war has already begun? I’m talking about domestic peace, peace in the home. You should be crying out to Hashem all the time, during the times of peace – especially when there’s peace. There shouldn’t be any “war” in your household. And that there should be peace in the households of your sons and daughters. You ask Hashem, “Please don’t let my telephone ring with bad news.” Sometimes a daughter calls up, chalilah, she’s having a fight with her husband. She wants to leave him. Ay yah yay, the tragedy of a broken home. Don’t wait! When it’s quiet on all fronts, your daughters are quiet with their husbands. Nobody’s complaining – maybe they are, but not to you. You hear nothing from your children. That’s wonderful, the great peace of shalom bayis. And that’s when you should cry out to Hashem, that He should continue to keep peace in your home and the homes of your children.HASHEM, SAVE ME FROM BLINKING TOO MUCHAnd if you don’t have any litigation with your neighbors, that’s the best time to daven. If you never went through that, you’re a lucky man, and you want to keep it that way. Trouble with neighbors, fighting and recriminations, going to court; it’s all tzaros. A man used to come in here. He used to come here and he was blinking all the time. I saw that the man was very nervous. And so I spoke to him and he told me he has constant legal trouble with neighbors. Jewish neighbors. About the driveway, about this and about that, and it got so acute that he was dragged into the court again and again. That’s tzaros.And so we ask Hakadosh Baruch Hu, שלום רב על ישראל עמך תשים – “Great peace in every area of our lives you should put upon us.” “Please Hashem. There should be peace inside of our stomachs. Our stomach shouldn’t complain, shouldn’t growl, shouldn’t groan. Our nerves shouldn’t complain, our head shouldn’t complain.” The body has a lot to say, and when the body is quiet and it’s peace all throughout the body, people aren’t grateful. You don’t realize how lucky you are. Your brain is getting good messages from all parts of the body. Constantly. You’re not aware of the messages. When do you become aware? When even once the messages are not good. Even if one pinprick somewhere on your skin is taking place, it’s relayed to your brain and you’re acutely aware of it. And so, when nothing is happening, it’s shalom. It’s complete tranquility on all fronts. From your toes to the scalp of your head, it’s quiet on all fronts. And when all is quiet, that’s the best opportunity to cry out to Hashem that it should remain quiet.THINK ABOUT WHAT COULD HAPPEN TO YOUOnly that when you call out to Hashem before the tzarah, it has to be with the same intensity as during a tzarah. The same Awareness of Hashem you have to accomplish in the good times! If you would think even a little bit about what tzaros does to a person, hospitals, and bills, and litigation, and so much pain and anguish! Cry out to Hakodosh Boruch Hu that it shouldn’t happen! At all times you should be crying out.And don’t think it’s excessive what I’m telling you now. You can never ask enough for Hashem to help you, because you can never be too Aware of Hashem! Because what we’ve learned from our parsha is that we’re in this world primarily to become Aware of Hashem. That’s our perfection! The more we call out to Him the more our neshamosare being purified.And therefore, usually we have two choices: You can become Aware of Him while He’s still giving you good things – while you’re healthy, while your wife and children are healthy, while you still have parnasah, and so on and so forth – by crying out to Him and entreating Him that everything should remain as is; that’s the best way to squeeze out from the good grapes the wine of Awareness of Hashem.THANK YOU FOR ALL THE TROUBLES!However, in this world, Hakodosh Boruch Hu will always press the good grapes of the Am Yisroel like He did in Mitzrayim; there’s always some more wine of Awareness to squeeze from you that you haven’t kvetchedout on your own. And so Hashem says, “It pays to give you trouble because the gain, the benefit for you when you’re thinking about Me, is the greatest of benefits. And when you come to the Next World, you’ll say, אודך השם כי אנפת בי – “I thank You Hashem for causing me that pain, for giving me this tza’ar or thattza’ar, because it made me call out to You. And it was the crying out in that world that gave me the greatest success, Awareness of You, Hashem, so that I can bask forever in the Presence of Your shechinah.” HAVE A WONDERFUL SHABBOS See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Tehilim Perek 119: Letter KUF Hello everybody, I’m Rabbi Shaya Sussman, covering the entire TANACH one perek at a time. Today’s Nach Daily will discuss the letter KUF. Kuf represents a heKuf, border, a passageway, a point of integration and Kedusha, holiness. As the eye of a needle is called the Kof Hamchat, this all points towards transitioning and moving to another, higher plane. Kuf comes after the latter Tzaddik because Kedusha, holiness, comes only after one has reached the level of a Tzaddik. After we have worked on ourselves, and even refrained from some things that are permissible, we can begin to receive and experience the higher level of Kedusha represented by the letter Kuf, transitioning from one level to another. This transitioning of levels can also work in the negative. As the passuk says, “lo t’hey Kadesha m’bnos Yisrael, there shouldn’t be a harlot from among the daughters of Israel. We find here that a zona, harlot,is called a Kadesha, which means that this particular woman descended to a lower level by separating herself in a lowly manner. Both the word for Kedusha, holiness, and Kadesha, a harlot, share the same etymology. They both stem from the letter Kuf, a point of integration or moving from level to level in either direction, for good or bad. The first time that the letter Kuf is used in the beginning of a word in the Torah is when it says, “VayiKra Elokim la’or yom, v’lachoshech Kara lyla, God called the light day and the darkness night.” The act of giving something a name is what causes it to transition and become something of permanence. When Hashem called the light, “Day, the name became official. When He called the darkness, “Night, the night also became a thing of permanence. It transitioned from a non-fact to a fact. This points towards the meaning of the letter Kuf, which is a transitional letter by definition as it’s the force of moving from one point to another. Kof means a monkey. The connection here is that it appears to look as if humans came from monkeys. Monkeys would then be like an intermediate or transition from humans. Please don’t get me wrong—we did not evolve from monkeys! Conceptually, however, monkeys appear to look like humans and Kof, from the letter Kuf, looks like a transitional point between humans and animals. The word for marriage is called Kedushin because in marriage a woman and man integrate and join with each other to become a new entity. Kuf is the point of integration. The shape of the letter Kuf has two openings representing the ability to go up or down levels. It should be noted, however, that the bottom opening of the Kuf gets smaller, as if bent inwards. This is to teach us that a person who received Kedusha is guarded from falling all the way down, receiving extra Divine protection. It also can be said that the shape of the Kuf looks like a face with a long beard. As Chazal say, “Hadras panim zaken, The beauty of a face is the beard,” which points towards Kedusha. Numerically, Kuf is 100, which represents the peak of spiritual perfection that one can attain. The 10 of the letter Yud represents the spiritual perfection of Olam Habah which was created with it. The Kuf, however, represents haKadosh Barichu Himself! As the passuk says in Vayikra: “Kadosh Ani Hashem, I am God who is Holy!” Kedusha is the highest level of being, totally separate from everything. God describes Himself as Kadosh, lifted and exalted above all, even Olam Habah which is represented by the Yud/10. Kuf is 100 because it represents God, who is beyond Olam Habah. Ultimately, no one can ever see God because He is unfathomable, truly incomprehensible to the human mind.

John Smith uses Moses as an example for us. When HaShem calls us, we should say, "Here I Am."

When Hashem told Moshe it was him that would lead the Jewish people out of Egypt, he responded, “Who am I to do this?” Sometimes we have to belittle ourselves to become great. Shames 1940.

11. Yeshua’s Bloody Atonement Sacrifice and Leviticus 17:11 In an attempt to continue explain the matter, we need to understand the plans and purposes of HaShem as expressed in the whole of the Torah. From our vantage point and using twentieth century hindsight, it makes perfect sense to send the Messiah to atone for our sinful nature. After all, if God left things in the hands of mankind, each individual man would have to atone for his own personal sins and consequently every man would eventually have to die for such a payment. But what does the Torah say? "Here is how it works: it was through one individual that sin entered into the world, and through sin, death; and in this way death passed through to the whole human race, inasmuch as everyone sinned." (Romans 5:12) With the entrance of sin came the punishment for sin–death. So we see that HaShem is perfectly righteous when he says that the wages for our sin is death; every man does deserve to die. But here is where the mercy of HaShem comes in! He has lovingly provided a means by which mankind can redeem himself. In the period of the TaNaKH, the sacrificial system was that means! Even though it pointed towards something greater, it was authentically God’s solution. No Jew living in that time period was able to circumvent this system, and remain officially within the community. If we take HaShem seriously, them we will accept his provision–no matter what means, or how temporal that provision is! This is our first lesson in "Torah logic". In summary then, the sacrificial system was not designed to bring the participant to the goal, namely a purged conscience and salvation of the individual. Sacrifices were for dealing with sin in the flesh. Only genuine faith in the Promised One could move God’s heart to reckon to one’s account “righteousness” as was done for Avraham. The Torah was weak in that it could not bring to the goal of salvation the heart of an individual. Only the Spirit’s supernatural work could—and always will be able to—do that. There is only ONE path to positional righteousness. There is only ONE way to attain lasting salvation. Thus we see that the covenant spoken about by the prophet Jeremiah is surely a superior system. When HaShem says that he will remember our sins no more, that’s something to rejoice about! Why would anyone want to attempt to revert back to the former system, if it were possible? Unfortunately, today, many of my brothers according to the flesh are doing something similar to this. When a person rejects Yeshua HaMashiach as the final atonement for their sin, they are really rejecting the One who sent the Messiah in the first place! In other words, to reject Yeshua is to reject HaShem! This is where the corporate blindness of my people lies.

“The Good News… and the Bad News” “Why”, we might ask, “does HaShem seem to constantly emphasize our shortcomings? Is he so enamored with how we will fail him that he fails to see the good in us? In the case of the Jewish People, was he so positive that they would forsake him and follow after false gods, that he needed to stand poised like an executioner, ready to bring down his blade in swift punishment?” Much as this may seem to be the case, fortunately, for our sake, it not true. HaShem is a God of undeserved-mercy and loving-compassion. Most accurately, Moshe predicted and expected how easily Am Yisra’el (the people of Isra’el) would fall into gross idolatry. It is simply amazing that he didn’t give up on them! The unexpected response from HaShem culminates in verse forty-three. Let’s see what the Torah has to teach us about the goodness of HaShem’s nature. If I were to conduct a paraphrased, verse-by verse overview, it would read something like this: Moshe proclaims, up front, the greatness of their God (vv. 3, 4) But within the people themselves lies defect (vs. 5, 6) HaShem takes unto himself this undeserving people (vs. 7-11) He alone provides for all of their needs (vs. 12-14) But their greed and lust overtake them (vs. 15-18) HaShem administers fatherly correction, to “woo” them back (vs. 19-25) Again, recognizing their defect, he compares them to their enemies (vs. 28-33) When HaShem’s judgment consequently comes upon those who hate him, his own people begin to consider him once again as the only source of all sustenance (vs. 34-42) This righteous judgment from HaShem elicits a proclamation from Moshe to the nations, “Sing out, you nations, about his people! For he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will render vengeance to his adversaries and make atonement for the land of his people” (vs. 43). As we can see, far from being cruel and unmerciful, HaShem desires to maintain a loving, lasting relationship with his children! The Torah clearly states that the problem is not found within HaShem or his righteous ways. Rather, the problem lies within us! This is repeated in the Apostolic Scriptures, in the book of Hebrews. It tells us in 8:7-8 that the New Covenant was necessary because of the fault that was within them—indeed the same one that is within us! We have an inherited defect, which causes us to lack wisdom. This lack of wisdom (of HaShem’s ways) brings us into conflict with his holiness, thereby leaving us hopeless to reach the goal that the Torah outlines for us. In our utter desperation we have no choice but to concede that he alone can make the necessary corrections in our sinful makeup. This correction is sometimes defined in the “judgment” of God.